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LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 


SAMUEL    JOHNSON,    D.  D 


-Library*  j 


LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 


SAMUEL   JOHNSON,   D.  I) 


MISSIONARY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  IN  CONNECTICUT, 

AND    FIRST  PRESIDENT  OF   KING'S   COLLEGE, 

NEW  YORK. 


BT 


E.    EDWARDS    BEARDSLEY,  D.  D., 

KKCTOK   OF    ST.    THOMAS'S    CHURCH,    NEW    HAVEN. 

^fVf'«-V>^v 

~-    ^ 
Library.  )) 

»«H«U  ^.nor. 


NEW    YORK: 

PUBLISHED    BY    HURD   AND   HOUOHTON. 
Conbon:   fiiningtons. 

1874. 


.*• 


^b 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  L873,  by 

E.  EDWAKDS  BBARDSLKT, 
In  the  office  of  the  librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


UVKRAIDK,  CAMBKIDOR: 

BTKRKOTTPKP     AND     PKINTKO     BT 
H.   O.    HOVOIITON    ASD    CUMPA9T. 


PREFACE. 


THE  materials  for  a  volume  of  this  kind  are  rarely 
accessible  after  the  lapse  of  a  century.  Letters  and 
papers  of  historic  value  are  so  often  scattered  and  de 
stroyed,  that  unless  the  biographer  attends  to  his  task 
in  season,  he  may  find  it  difficult  to  gather  the  infor 
mation  that  he  needs  for  writing  with  fullness  and 
satisfaction.  "  If  a  life,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  the  great 
name  which  is  the  pride  and  glory  of  English  liter 
ature,  "  be  delayed  till  interest  and  envy  are  at  an 
end,  we  may  hope  for  impartiality,  but  must  expect 
little  intelligence." 

Though  this  work  is  published  one  hundred  years 
after  the  death  of  its  distinguished  subject,  yet  I  trust 
it  will  be  found  that  besides  being  impartial,  I  have 
escaped  the  caustic  criticism  of  givirfg  "  little  intelli 
gence."  In  writing  the  History  of  the  Church  in 
Connecticut,  I  fell  upon  original  sources  of  informa 
tion,  which  seemed  never  to  have  been  carefully  ex 
plored.  Chandler's  "  Life  of  Johnson,"  brief  and  un 
satisfactory  as  it  may  be,  was  very  well  for  the  day  in 
which  it  appeared,  and  I  should  not  have  attempted 
an  ampler  biography,  if  I  had  not  felt  that  it  was  now 


vi  PREFACE. 

due  to  the  memory  of  one  of  the  most  important  names 
in  American  history. 

The  Johnson  MSS.,  not  a  tithe  of  which  could 
have  passed  under  the  inspection  of  Chandler,  have 
all  been  kindly  placed  in  my  hands,  and  unless  I  had 
been  familiar  with  them  by  previous  acquaintance, 
the  preparation  of  this  work  would  have  been  much 
more  laborious,  and  its  publication  longer  delayed. 
As  it  is,  the  hours  of  leisure  during  a  period  of  three 
years,  if  the  busy  Rector  of  a  city  parish  may  be  sup 
posed  to  have  any  leisure,  have  been  devoted  to  it, 
and  nothing  has  been  overlooked  which  was  calcu 
lated  to  shed  any  new  light  upon  the  character  of 
Johnson,  and  the  times  in  which  he  lived. 

By  introducing  large  portions  of  his  correspondence 
with  eminent  men  in  this  country,  and  with  Bishops 
and  leading  minds  in  the  Church  of  England,  I  have 
made  him  in  a  measure  his  own  biographer,  and  at 
the  same  time  rescued  from  oblivion  faded  manuscripts 
which  the  accidents  of  another  generation  might  have 
put  quite  beyond  our  reach.  One  gets  a  better  idea  of 
a  man  from  seeing  him  in  his  letters  and  writings  than 
from  the  estimates  of  those  who  weigh  him  in  their 
own  scales,  and  describe  him  in  their  own  language. 

It  was  a  remark  of  Bishop  Jebb  that  "  the  lives  of 
good  men  are  an  invaluable  portion  of  a  clergyman's 
library  ;  "  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  these  pages  will 
not  be  limited  to  readers  of  this  class.  All  who  are 
interested  in  Yale  College,  its  early  struggles  and 


PREFACE.  vii 

first  endowments,  the  gifts  of  Berkeley  and  the  influ 
ence  of  his  Philosophy,  all  who  would  know  anything 
of  the  origin  of  King's  (now  Columbia)  College,  New 
York,  and  of  the  progress  of  liberal  education  in  this 
country,  and  all  who  would  thoroughly  understand 
the  efforts  to  secure  the  American  Episcopate,  the 
strange  opposition  to  it,  and  the  movements  which 
led  to  the  Eevolution  and  the  Independence  of  the 
Colonies,  will  find  many  fresh  historical  facts  in  this 
volume,  and  wonder  why  they  were  not  before  given 
to  the  public. 

The  engraving  which  forms  the  frontispiece  is  made 
from  a  portrait  in  the  possession  of  his  great  grand 
son,  Mr.  William  Samuel  Johnson  of  Stratford.  The 
painting,  though  there  is  nothing  but  a  tradition  in 
the  family  to  support  the  statement,  is  without  doubt 
from  the  pencil  of  Smibert,  the  artist  who  accompa 
nied  Dean  Berkeley  to  America,  and  remained  in 
Boston  after  the  return  of  his  friend  and  patron  to 
England.  It  has  the  touch  of  Berkeley's  own  por 
trait  by  the  same  painter,  which  is  among  the  treas 
ures  of  Art  that  adorn  the  walls  of  Yale  College. 

NEW  HAVEN,  December,  1873. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE  ;  EARLY  EDUCATION  AND  STATE  OF 
LEARNING  IN  THE  COUNTRY;  BACHELOR'S  DEGREE  FROM  THE 
COLLEGE  AT  SAYBROOK;  THE  COLLEGE  REMOVED  TO  NEW 
HAVEN,  AND  JOHNSON  APPOINTED  ONE  OF  THE  TUTORS.  HIS 
SETTLEMENT  AT  WEST  HAVEN  AND  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  A 
PRAYER-BOOK  AND  WORKS  IN  ENGLISH  THEOLOGY  ...  1 

A.  D.  1696-1722. 
CHAPTER  H. 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  JOHNSON  AND  HIS  FRIENDS  ;  STRUGGLE 
BETWEEN  FEELINGS  AND  DUTY;  DEBATE  BEFORE  GOVERNOR 
SALTONSTALL  AND  ITS  RESULTS ;  EXTRACTS  FROM  NOTES  OF 
DAYS  ;  VOYAGE  TO  ENGLAND  FOR  ORDINATION  ;  ARRIVAL  AND 
RECEPTION }  PRIVATE  JOURNAL  ...  .  .  .  .18 

A.  D.  1722,  1725. 

CHAPTER  HI. 

SICKNESS  AND  DEATH  OF  BROWN  ;  FURTHER  EXTRACTS  FROM 
PRIVATE  JOURNAL;  VISITS  TO  OXFORD  AND  CAMBRIDGE;  AR 
RIVAL  OF  MR.  WETMORE;  DEPARTURE  FROM  ENGLAND,  AND 
VOYAGE  HOME  ;  SETTLEMENT  AT  STRATFORD  J  LETTERS  TO  THE 
BISHOP  OF  LONDON;  MARRIAGE  ...  .  .  .  .38 

A.  D.  1723-1727. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

POLEMICS  AND  INFIDELITY;  BIRTH  OF  A  SON;  PERSONAL  AC 
QUAINTANCE  WITH  DEAN  BERKELEY ;  VISITS  TO  HIM  AT  NEW 
PORT,  AND  A  CONVERT  TO  HIS  VIEWS  ;  ALCIPHRON,  OR  THE 
MINUTE  PHILOSOPHER;  RETURN  OF  BERKELEY  TO  ENGLAND, 


x  CONTENTS. 

AND    BENEFACTIONS    TO    YALE    COLLEGE  J     RELIGIOUS    CONTRO 
VERSY,  AND  PUBLICATION  OF  PAMPHLETS 60 

A.  D.  1727-1736. 
CHAPTER   V. 

FOREIGN  CORRESPONDENCE  J  MEMORIAL  TO  THE  GENERAL  AS 
SEMBLY  OF  CONNECTICUT;  LETTERS  TO  BERKELEY;  WHITE- 
FIELD  IN  NEW  ENGLAND  AND  RELIGIOUS  ENTHUSIASM;  COM 
PLAINT  TO  THE  COMMISSARY;  THE  CLERGY  OF  CONNECTICUT 
PETITIONING  FOR  A  RESIDENT  COMMISSARY,  AND  ASKING  THAT 
JOHNSON  BE  APPOINTED;  DOCTOR'S  DEGREE  FROM  THE  UNI 
VERSITY  OF  OXFORD  .  .  ... 92 

A.  D.  1736-1743. 

CHAPTER   VI. 

INCREASE  OF  HIS  PARISH  AND  NEW  CHURCH  AT  STRATFORD; 
MORE  CONTROVERSY;  SYSTEM  OF  MORALITY;  STUDY  OF  HE 
BREW,  AND  HUTCHINSON'S  PRINCIPLES  ;  PHILOSOPHICAL  COR 
RESPONDENCE  J  EDUCATION  OF  SONS,  AND  LETTERS  TO  THE 
KLPKR  ;  PROJECT  OF  A  COLLEGE  AT  PHILADELPHIA,  AND 
JOHNSON  INVITED  TO  ITS  CHARGE  .  .  .  .  .  .119 

A.  D.  1743-1750. 

CHAPTER  VH. 

CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  FRANKLIN;  DECLINES  PHILADELPHIA; 
"  ELEMENTA  PHILOSOPHICA  "  ;  DEATH  OF  BERKELEY  AND  LET 
TER  FROM  HIS  SON  ;  ENGLISH  EDITION  OF  "  ELEMENTS  OF  PHI 
LOSOPHY  "  ;  SPECULATIVE  INQUIRIES,  AND  NOTIONS  ABOUT 
EDUCATION  .  .  .  .  '.  .  .  .'  *"  .  .  157 

A.  D.  1750-1754. 

CHAPTER  Vm. 

PROPOSED  COLLEGE  AT  NEW  YORK  ;  JOHNSON  INVITED  TO  THE 
PRESIDENCY;  OBSTACLES  TO  A  CHARTER,  AND  FINALLY  GRANT 
ED  ;  LETTERS  TO  PRESIDENT  CLAP ;  REMOVAL  TO  NEW  YORK 
AND  LECTURER  IN  TRINITY  CHURCH  ;  HIS  YOUNGER  SON 
CHOSEN  TUTOR  IN  KING'S  COLLEGE  ;  GOES  TO  ENGLAND  FOR  OR 
DINATION  AND  DIES  THERE  OF  THE  SMALL-POX  .  .  .189 

A.  D.  1754-1756. 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  IX. 

GRIEF  FOR  THE  DEATH  OF  HIS  SON  AND  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH 
FRIENDS  ;  PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLLEGE  AND  ERECTION  OF  A 
BUILDING  J  LEAVES  THE  CITY  ON  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  SMALL 
POX  ;  DEATH  OF  HIS  WIFE  ;  FIRST  COMMENCEMENT ;  AND  IN 
CLINATIONS  TO  RESIGN  ...  .  .  .  .  .  .  225 

A.  D.  1756-1759. 
CHAPTER  X. 

4MALL-POX  AGAIN  IN  NEW  YORK,  AND  RETIREMENT  TO  STRAT 
FORD  ;  MORE  AFFLICTION  ;  THIRD  COMMENCEMENT  |  LETTERS 
TO  THE  ARCHBISHOP  OF  CANTERBURY;  PUBLICATIONS  ON 
PRAYER,  AND  DEFENCE  OF  THE  LITURGY  .....  247 

A.  D.  1759-1761. 

CHAPTER  XL 

FOURTH  COMMENCEMENT;  SECOND  MARRIAGE;  BENEFACTIONS 
TO  THE  COLLEGE  ;  DR.  JAY  AUTHORIZED  TO  MAKE  COLLECTIONS 
IN  ENGLAND  ;  ARRIVAL  OF  REV.  MYLES  COOPER  J  RELIGIOUS 
CONTROVERSY;  AND  FOREIGN  CORRESPONDENCE  .  .  .  265 

A.  D.  1761-1763. 
CHAPTER  XTL 

THE  SMALL-POX  IN  NEW  YORK ;  DEATH  OF  HIS  WIFE  ;  RESIGNA 
TION  OF  THE  PRESIDENCY  AND  RETIREMENT  TO  STRATFORD  ; 
CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  FRIENDS  IN  ENGLAND  ;  RE-APPOINT 
MENT  TO  HIS  FORMER  MISSION  ;  ADDRESS  TO  THE  BISHOP  OF 
LONDON  J  THE  STAMP  ACT  J  CONTINUED  INTEREST  IN  THE  COL 
LEGE  ;  AND  CLERICAL  CONVENTION  .......  286 

A.  D.  1763-1766. 

CHAPTER  XHT. 

REVIEW  OF  HUTCHINSON'S  PHILOSOPHY;  STUDY  OF  HEBREW  AND 
PUBLICATION  OF  GRAMMAR ;  INDIAN  SCHOOL  ;  DEPARTURE  OF 

HIS  SON  FOR  ENGLAND ;  CHANDLER'S  APPEAL  ;  CORRESPON 
DENCE  WITH  HIS  SON  J  ENGLISH  ANCESTRY  ;  AND  DEATH  OF 
ARCHBISHOP  SECKER  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  •  305 

A.  D.  1766-1768. 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

STRUGGLE  FOR  AMERICAN  BISHOPS  CONTINUED  ;  FOREIGN  COR 
RESPONDENCE  ;  BISHOP  LOWTH  AND  HEBREW  GRAMMAR;  AS 
SISTANT  MINISTER  ;  MARRIAGE  OF  GRANDDAUGHTER  ;  AND 
PROLONGED  ABSENCE  OF  HIS  SON  .  .  .  .  .  .324 

A.  D.  1768-1770. 
CHAPTER  XV. 

DE8IRK    FOR    AMERICAN    BISHOPS    UNQUENCHED  ;    LETTERS    FROM 

DR.  BERKELEY  AND  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON  ;  JOY  AT  THE  RE 
TURN  OF  HIS  SON  ;  WISH  FOR  A  PEACEFUL  EXIT  |  DKATH  AND 
BURIAL;  CONCLUSION 341 

A.  D.  1770-1772. 

APPENDIX  A... 361 

APPENDIX  B     .        .        .       •  .  366 


LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 


OP 


SAMUEL    JOHNSON. 


CHAPTER    I. 

BIBTH  AND  PARENTAGE  ;  EARLY  EDUCATION  AND  STATE  OF  LEARN 
ING  IN  THE  COUNTRY;  BACHELOR'S  DEGREE  FROM  THE  COL 
LEGE  AT  SAYBROOK ;  THE  COLLEGE  REMOVED  TO  NEW  HAVEN, 
AND  JOHNSON  APPOINTED  ONE  OF  THE  TUTORS.  HIS  SETTLE 
MENT  AT  WEST  HAVEN  AND  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  A  PRAYER- 
BOOK  AND  WORKS  IN  ENGLISH  THEOLOGY. 

A.  D.  1696-1722. 

IT  would  not  have  been  worth  while  to  write  the 
life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  had  it  been  as  barren  of  inci 
dent  and  historic  interest  as  the  lives  of  most  clergy 
men.  But  he  lived  in  eventful  times,  and  the  part 
which  he  bore  in  the  literary,  ecclesiastical,  and  edu 
cational  affairs  of  the  country  will  warrant  the  publi 
cation  of  fuller  memorials  than  those  hitherto  given 
to  the  public. 

He  was  born  in  Guilford,  Connecticut,  on  the  14th 

of  October,  1696,  0.  S.,  and  was  the  great  grandson  of 

Robert  Johnson,  who  with  his  wife  Adaline  and  four 

sons,  Robert,  Thomas,  John,  and  William,  came  from 

i 


2  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Kingston  upon  Hull,  Yorkshire,  and  first  appeared  at 
New  Haven  in  1641.  Kobert,  the  eldest  of  these  sons, 
finished  his  academic  education  at  Harvard  College, 
and  graduated  in  the  class  of  1645.  He  went  to 
Rowley,  in  Massachusetts,  where  a  brother  of  his  fa 
ther  had  settled,  and  was  pursuing  his  studies  with  a 
view  to  the  sacred  ministry,  when  he  sickened  and 
died.  In  his  will,  dated  "  13th  of  the  7th  mo.  1649," 
and  probated  at  Ipswich  "  the  26th  of  the  1st  mo. 
1650,"  he  directed  his  executors  to  distribute  a  por 
tion  of  his  goods  to  the  poor  of  Rowley,  and  to  return 
the  remainder  to  his  father,  Robert  Johnson,  at  New 
Haven.  Thomas,  the  second  son,  died  a  bachelor.  John 
married,  and  his  descendants  settled  in  Wallingford 
and  Middletown. 

William,  the  grandfather  of  Samuel  Johnson,  and 
who  was  twelve  years  old  when  the  family  emigrated 
from  England,  removed  to  Guilford,  and  became  one 
of  the  leading  men  in  that  town  and  a  deacon  in  the 
Congregational  Church.  He  married  July  2,  1651, 
Elizabeth  Bushnell,  daughter  of  Francis  Bushnell  of 
Saybrook,  and  had  eight  daughters  and  two  sons  — 
the  youngest,  Nathaniel,  dying  not  long  after  his 
birth,  and  surviving  his  mother  but  a  few  weeks. 
Samuel,  the  father  of  the  subject  of  this  volume,  was 
born  in  1670,  and  at  twenty-six  married  Mary, 
daughter  of  David  Sage  of  Middletown,  by  whom  he 
had  eleven  children,  six  sons  and  five  daughters.  He 
was  a  successor  to  his  father  in  the  office  of  a  Congre 
gational  deacon  at  Guilford,  and  the  distinguished  son, 
late  in  life,  speaking  of  them  both,  and  giving  some 
account  of  their  character  to  one  of  his  own  children, 
said,  they  were  "  well  esteemed  for  men  of  good  sense 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  3 

and  piety,  but  neither  of  them  had  much  more  of  a 
turn  for  worldly  wisdom  than  I  have." 

Samuel,  though  not  the  first-born  of  his  parents, 
was  the  eldest  child  that  lived  beyond  infancy,  and 
he  appears  to  have  been  a  pet  of  his  grandfather, 
William,  who  taught  him  to  read  and  commit  to  mem 
ory  not  only  passages  of  Scripture,  but  the  Lord's 
Prayer  and  the  Creed.  He  was  very  proud  of  his 
progress,  and  occasionally  took  the  boy  with  him  in 
visiting  his  neighbors,  and  made  him  repeat  for  their 
entertainment  specimens  of  the  knowledge  which  he 
had  acquired.  Among  his  earliest  recollections,  Sam 
uel  mentions  finding  in  a  book  of  his  grandfather's 
several  Hebrew  words  which  excited  his  curiosity,  but 
no  one  could  tell  him  their  meaning,  or  explain  them 
further  than  to  say  they  belonged  to  the  original 
language  in  which  the  Old  Testament  was  written. 
This  but  increased  his  desire  for  learning,  and  as  the 
project  of  establishing  a  college  in  the  colony  at  Say- 
brook,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Guilford,  had  just  then 
taken  shape,  he  was  marked  out  in  the  mind  of  the 
household  as  a  future  candidate  for  its  course  of  in 
struction.  Upon  the  death  of  his  grandfather,  how 
ever,  which  happened  when  he  was  six  years  old,  the 
design  was  relinquished,  and  it  might  not  have  been 
renewed  had  not  his  fondness  for  books  continued  and 
the  prospect  of  bringing  him  up  to  other  business  be 
come  discouraging. 

In  the  eleventh  year  of  his  age,  he  was  sent  to  a 
school,  in  his  native  place,  kept  at  that  time  by  Jared 
Eliot,  a  young  man  who  had  graduated  at  the  new 
college,  a  son  of  the  then  recently  deceased  minister 
of  Guilford,  and  whose  affection  for  his  pupil  ripened 


4  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

into  friendly  relations  in  after  life.  But  he  was  not 
long  to  enjoy  the  happiness  of  such  an  instructor. 
Before  the  year  expired,  Mr.  Eliot  relinquished  the 
school  to  prepare  for  his  settlement  in  the  ministry 
at  Killingworth,  now  Clinton,  and  the  lad,  impatient 
to  learn,  was  finally  sent  from  home  and  placed  under 
the  care  of  Joseph  Smith,  pastor  of  a  newly  organized 
church  in  Upper  Middletown,  now  Cromwell.  Though 
a  graduate  of  Harvard  College,  Mr.  Smith  was  not  a 
scholar  who  inspired  his  pupil  with  much  respect  for 
his  attainments,  and  after  trying  in  vain  for  six 
months  to  make  progress  in  his  studies,  he  left  his 
poorly  qualified  master  and  returned  to  Guilford. 

Here  he  fell  first  into  the  hands  of  Daniel  Chap 
man,  another  graduate  of  the  new  college,  who  was 
an  improvement  upon  his  last  instructor,  and  with 
whom  he  continued  for  nearly  two  years.  At  length 
he  found  in  the  person  of  Mr.  James,  who  had  been 
educated  in  England,  a  respectable  classical  scholar, 
and  notwithstanding  some  eccentricities  of  character, 
a  very  good  teacher.  Under  his  tuition  he  made 
rapid  advancement  in  Latin  and  Greek,  and  by  the 
time  he  had  attained  the  age  of  fourteen  years,  he 
was  pronounced  fit  to  join  the  College  at  Saybrook. 

There  was  not  much  to  be  proud  of  at  this  period 
in  the  state  of  learning  throughout  the  country.  The 
old  scholars  and  Puritan  divines  of  the  Connecticut 
and  Massachusetts  colonies,  who  came  with  the  early 
emigrants,  had  descended  to  their  graves,  and  the 
generation  that  succeeded  them,  not  having  had  the 
advantages  of  the  Universities  in  England,  fell  behind 
the  fathers,  and  was  greatly  deficient,  if  tested  by  a 
high  standard  of  education.  The  course  of  studies 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  5 

prescribed  in  the  new  college  was  brief,  for  "  the  ut 
most  as  to  classical  learning  that  was  now  generally 
aimed  at,  "  says  Johnson  in  his  Autobiography,1  "  and 
indeed  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  after,  was  no  more 
than  to  construe  five  or  six  of  Tully's  Orations,  and  as 
many  books  of  Virgil  poorly,  and  most  of  the  Greek 
Testament,"  with  a  portion  of  the  Hebrew  Psalter. 
His  first  tutor  at  college  was  Joseph  Noyes,  one  of 
the  nine  graduates  of  the  institution  in  1709,  and  af 
terwards  for  forty-five  years  pastor  of  the  First  Ec 
clesiastical  Society  in  New  Haven.  His  "  tutorial  re 
nown  "  according  to  President  Stiles,  "  was  then  great 
and  excellent,"  and  having  some  knowledge  of  He 
brew,  he  encouraged  his  pupil  to  devote  the  little 
leisure  he  might  have,  to  the  study  of  a  language 
which  he  was  chiefly  desirous  to  understand,  and 
which  soon  became  his  favorite  branch  of  philology. 
The  tutor  in  the  department  of  mathematics  and 
mental  and  moral  philosophy,  was  Phineas  Fisk,  and 
his  instructions,  like  those  of  his  colleague  in  the 
classics,  had  a  limited  range,  and  were  confined  to 
the  imperfect  systems  not  yet  brushed  away  by  the 
scientific  discoveries  of  Descartes,  Boyle,  Locke,  and 
Newton.  When  Johnson  graduated  in  1714,  some 
thing  had  been  heard  of  these  great  names,  as  well 
as  of  a  new  philosophy  that  was  attracting  attention  in 
England,  but  the  young  men  were  cautioned  against 
receiving  it,  and  told  that  it  would  corrupt  the  pure 
religion  of  the  country  and  bring  in  another  system  of 
divinity.  Ames's  "  Medulla  Theologiae  "  and  "  Cases  of 
Conscience  "  and  "  Wollebius,"  had  been  established  as 
the  standard  of  orthodoxy,  and  no  variation  from  these 
was  admissible.  The  trustees  of  the  institution,  at  the 

i  MS. 


6  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

outset,  made  a  fundamental  rule  that  special  care 
should  be  taken  to  "ground  the  students  well  in 
theoretical  divinity,"  and  the  Rector  was  forbidden  to 
teach  or  allow  others  to  teach  any  system  contrary  to 
their  order. 

It  was  less  difficult  to  confine  attention  to  the  old 
scholastic  systems,  for  the  reason  that  books  of  learn 
ing  in  the  land  were  rare,  and  opportunities  for  im 
provement  small.  The  few  works  brought  over  from 
England  by  the  first  settlers  were  treatises  published  a 
century  before ;  and  Johnson  early  acquired  a  repu 
tation  for  skill  by  making  a  synopsis  of  them,  and  re 
ducing  to  some  method  all  parts  of  learning  then 
known,  —  "a  curious  cobweb  of  distributions  and  def 
initions"  as  he  himself  termed  it,  —  "which  only 
served  to  blow  him  up  with  a  great  conceit  that  he 
was  now  an  adept."  But  his  pride  of  opinion  was 
afterwards  thoroughly  humbled.  He  accidentally  fell 
in  with  a  copy  of  Lord  Bacon's  "Instauratio  Magna," 
or  "Advancement  of  Learning," — possibly  the  only 
one  then  in  the  country  —  and  purchasing  it  immedi 
ately,  he  lost  no  time  in  devouring  its  contents.  It 
opened  to  him  a  new  world  of  thought.  With  an 
unprejudiced  mind  he  read  its  pages,  and  considered 
and  reconsidered  the  whole  circle  of  sciences  as  they 
had  been  investigated  and  arranged  by  this  remark 
able  man.  He  was  thus  led  to  see  his  own  littleness 
in  comparison  with  Lord  Bacon's  greatness,  and  to 
use  his  own  words,  he  "  found  himself  like  one  at 
once  emerging  out  of  the  glimmer  of  twilight  into 
the  full  sunshine  of  open  day." 

After  completing  his  collegiate  course  and  receiv 
ing  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  he  followed  the 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  7 

example  of  Eliot,  and  entered  upon  the  labor  of  teach 
ing  a  school  of  the  higher  order  in  Guilford.  His 
classmate  and  intimate  friend,  Daniel  Brown,  acted  in 
the  like  capacity  at  New  Haven,  and  the  correspond 
ence  carried  on  between  them  at  this  period  was 
full  of  affection,  and  bore  upon  theology,  and  ques 
tions  that  related  to  "  philosophy  in  general  and 
logic  in  particular."  The  concerns  of  the  College, 
too,  were  much  in  their  thoughts.  Brown,  in  one  of 
his  letters  dated  August  3,  1716,  wrote:  "As  to 
domestic  affairs,  please  to  be  informed,  that  July  18, 
Mr.  Moss,  Hemingway,  and  Noyes,  went  to  conse 
crate  your  chapel  at  the  North  Village.  .  .  .  This 
town  hath  given  eight  acres  of  land  hard  joining  to 
the  town  plot,  for  the  use  of  the  College,  if  it  comes 
here.  Considerable  of  money  is  subscribed  also." 

The  beginning  of  the  institution  was  a  contribution 
of  about  forty  folio  volumes,  almost  all  theological, 
and  given  by  different  ministers  of  the  colony  "  for 
founding  a  college  in  Connecticut."  The  next  year, 
1701,  this  library  was  increased  by  another  private 
donation,  and  in  1714,  Jeremiah  Dummer,  the  agent 
of  the  colony  in  England,  sent  over  a  valuable  collec 
tion  of  eight  hundred  volumes,  some  of  which  were 
his  own  gift,  and  the  remainder  had  been  obtained  at 
his  solicitation  from  various  English  gentlemen  and 
authors.  The  whole  number  of  books  was  now  about 
one  thousand,  and  among  them  were  works  of  emi 
nent  writers  of  the  Church  of  England,  both  clergy 
men  and  laymen.  Johnson  and  his  literary  friends 
eagerly  embraced  opportunities  of  becoming  ac 
quainted  with  the  new  collection,  and  read  for  the 
first  time  the  works  of  some  of  the  best  English  di- 


8  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

vines  and  philosophers.  The  library  was  placed  at 
Saybrook,  where  the  instruction  was  carried  on  by 
two  tutors,  and  where  the  private  commencements 
were  held.  But  no  college  building  had  been  erected 
there ;  and  as  the  original  charter  gave  to  the  trustees 
the  right  of  selecting  the  town  in  which  the  institu 
tion  should  be  permanently  fixed,  a  diversity  of  opin 
ion  arose  on  the  subject,  and  sharp  controversies 
sprung  up  which  led  to  disorder  and  dissatisfaction 
among  the  students.  They  complained  of  the  want  of 
proper  accommodations  at  Saybrook,  and  entertained 
so  little  respect  for  their  tutors  as  to  break  out  into 
open  rebellion  towards  the  end  of  the  year  1715. 
Those  from  towns  on  the  Connecticut  River,  acting  un 
der  the  guidance  of  Timothy  Woodbridge  and  Thomas 
Buckingham,  ministers  at  Hartford  and  trustees  of  the 
College,  collected  together  at  Wethersfield,  where  in 
struction  was  set  up  in  a  collegiate  way  by  two  tutors, 
and  in  which  place  or  in  Hartford  these  trustees 
wished  the  institution  to  be  finally  located.  Other 
students  from  the  sea-side  towns  put  themselves  un 
der  the  care  and  tuition  of  Mr.  Johnson  at  Guilford, 
while  Mr.  Andrew,  the  rector  pro  tern.,  who  resided  at 
Milford,  appears  to  have  taken  upon  himself  the  in 
struction  and  oversight  of  the  senior  class. 

The  breach  thus  made  in  the  colony  could  not  be 
readily  healed,  and  the  Collegiate  School,  for  so  it  was 
denominated  at  that  time,  continued  in  a  disordered 
state  till  September,  1716,  when  a  majority  of  the 
trustees,  of  which  number  was  Governor  Saltonstall, 
voted  to  remove  it  to  New  Haven.  The  sanction 
of  the  General  Assembly,  which  met  the  following 
month,  was  asked  and  obtained  for  the  removal,  and 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  9 

then  the  trustees  proceeded  to  elect  Mr.  Johnson  one 
of  the  tutors ;  and  with  a  view  of  conciliating  the 
opposition,  they  chose  Samuel  Smith,  who  was  of  the 
Wethersfield  party,  to  be  the  other.  But  the  dis 
satisfaction  was  not  appeased,  and  at  Saybrook 
forcible  resistance  was  made  to  the  removal  of  the 
library,  so  that  the  Governor  and  Council  deemed  it 
expedient  to  convene  there,  and  aid  the  sheriff  in  the 
performance  of  his  duty.  Besides  other  lawless  acts, 
the  carts  provided  for  transporting  the  books  were 
destroyed  in  the  night  time,  the  bridges  between 
Saybrook  and  New  Haven  were  rendered  impassable, 
and  during  the  week  in  which  the  library  was  upon 
the  road,  many  valuable  books  and  papers  were  lost. 
An  attempt  to  supersede  Governor  Saltonstall  at  the 
next  election,  for  his  activity  in  the  matter,  was  well- 
nigh  successful,1  and  the  feud  in  the  government  was 
not  diminished  when  a  subscription  was  set  on  foot  in 
New  Haven,  "  and  in  all  the  neighboring  towns,  for 
building  a  college  ;  and  one  Mr.  Caner  of  Boston  was 
procured  to  undertake  the  work,  who  directly  applied 
himself  to  the  business." 2  Mr.  Johnson,  under  a  com 
mission  from  the  trustees,  waited  on  Mr.  Smith  to 
induce  him  to  accept  the  office  of  tutor  and  bring  his 
scholars  with  him  to  New  Haven,  but  he  and  his 
party  were  inexorable,  and  resolved  to  maintain  their 
ground  and  carry  on  their  design.  Johnson,  there 
fore,  was  obliged  to  enter  upon  the  tutorship  alone, 
and  with  about  fifteen  students  from  the  sea-side 
began  his  course  of  instruction  at  New  Haven,  being 
assisted  by  Mr.  Noyes,  the  minister  of  the  town. 
In  1718  the  trustees  appointed  Daniel  Brown  to  be 

1  Prof.  Kingsley's  Sketch  of  Yale  College,  p.  7.  2  Johnson  MSS. 


10  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

his  colleague,  —  the  classmate  whose  turn  of  mind 
and  thirst  for  knowledge  not  only  made  him  an  agree 
able  companion,  but  a  hearty  supporter  of  new  studies 
in  the  line  of  philosophy  and  mathematics.  By  the 
autumn  of  that  year  several  apartments  were  finished 
in  the  college  building,  and  Johnson  first  lodged  and 
set  up  housekeeping  therein,  and  shortly  his  colleague 
followed  his  example.  The  institution  was  now  gain 
ing  friends  and  a  good  reputation.  The  General 
Assembly  had  hitherto,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  con 
nived  at  the  faction  in  Wethersfield,  hoping  it  would 
die  out  of  itself;  but  at  the  October  session  in  1718, 
an  act  was  passed  requiring  all  the  students  to  repair 
to  the  established  college.  "  They  made  an  appear 
ance  of  submission,  and  came  all  at  once  in  a  caravan ; 
but  it  soon  appeared  that  they  had  no  good  intention ; 
they  found  fault  with  everything,  and  made  all  the 
mischief  they  could,  as  they  were  doubtless  instructed 
to  do ; " l  and  after  six  weeks  they  withdrew  and 
rejoined  the  old  faction.  At  the  next  session  of  the 
General  Assembly  measures  were  concerted  to  recon 
cile  the  conflicting  interests,  and  finally  the  difference 
was  compromised  in  this  way :  the  scholars  should 
return  to  their  duty  and  abide  at  New  Haven ;  and 
in  case  they  did,  the  degrees  which  had  been  given 
at  Wethersfield  should  be  allowed  good,  "  and  a  State 
House  should  be  built  at  the  public  expense  at  Hart 
ford."  Thus  the  unhappy  controversy — a  manu 
script  history  of  which  by  Johnson  has  been  pre 
served —  was  terminated,  and  liberal  donations  of 
money  and  of  books  by  Governor  Yale  gave  to  the 
college  a  new  impulse,  and  the  name  which  it  now 

l  Johnson  MSS. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  11 

Dears  was  then  conferred  on  it  in  honor  of  him  for 
his  timely  benefactions. 

The  state  of  the  institution  demanded  a  resident 
rector,  and  as  Mr.  Andrew  was  advanced  in  life  and 
disinclined  to  remove  from  Milford,  the  trustees  chose 
Timothy  Cutler,  who  had  been  for  ten  years  the 
pastor  in  Stratford  and  a  popular  preacher  in  the 
colony,  to  be  his  successor.  He  was  a  native  of 
Charlestown  in  Massachusetts,  and  graduated  at  Har 
vard  College  in  1701.  His  learning  and  superior 
talents  qualified  him  for  the  station  ;  but  the  thought 
of  his  separation  from  them  grieved  his  parishioners, 
and  they  resisted  it  for  some  time  with  much  firm 
ness.  At  length,  however,  it  was  accomplished,  and 
Mr.  Cutler  established  himself  with  his  family  at  New 
Haven  in  the  autumn  of  1719,  after  which  Johnson 
retired  from  the  office  of  tutor,  though  not  from 
association  with  his  literary  friends  —  the  Kector  and 
Mr.  Brown.  Theology  was  the  study  to  which  he 
had  always  intended  to  devote  himself;  and  as  the 
people  of  West  Haven  —  a  village  only  four  miles 
from  the  college,  and  at  that  time  a  part  of  New 
Haven  —  earnestly  desired  him  to  settle  among  them, 
he  yielded  to  their  solicitations,  and  was  ordained 
there  in  the  Congregational  way  on  the  20th  of  March, 
1720,  "  having  been,"  according  to  his  own  account, 
"  a  preacher  occasionally  ever  since  he  was  eighteen." 1 
He  might  have  found  other  fields  of  pastoral  labor  in 
many  respects  more  inviting,  but  his  desire  to  be  near 
the  college  and  the  library,  as  well  as  near  those 
for  whose  society  he  had  the  keenest  relish,  led  him 
to  forego  the  acceptance  of  better  offers,  and  give 

1   4ii.t.nhistnrft.n7>.v. 


12  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

the  preference  to  a  situation  of  comparatively  little 
promise. 

The  books  most  frequently  in  his  hands  at  this 
period  were  not  calculated  to  strengthen  his  faith  in 
Independency,  and  some  time  before  his  ordination, 
for  the  purpose  of  "  methodizing  his  thoughts,"  and 
assisting  his  memory,  he  drew  up  a  scheme  of  relig 
ion,  embracing  its  doctrines  and  duties,  and  following 
the  plan  of  John  Scott  in  his  "  Christian  Life,"  a 
work  which  he  greatly  admired  and  pronounced  to 
be  the  best  and  most  compendious  that  had  yet  fallen 
in  his  way.  His  inquisitive  mind  would  not  allow 
huii  to  rest  contented  in  hasty  conclusions,  and  so 
early  as  1715  he  met  with  the  discourse  of  Arch 
bishop  King  on  "  the  Inventions  of  Men  in  the  Wor 
ship  of  God,"  —  the  reading  of  which  helped  to  in 
crease  his  dislike  of  extempore  prayers,  and  to  confirm 
him  in  the  opinion  that  the  use  of  pre- composed  forms 
of  public  worship  was  more  devotional,  and  showed 
much  greater  reverence  for  the  Divine  Majesty.  He 
had  been  bred  up  in  prejudice  against  the  Church  of 
England,  but  a  good,  religious  man  in  Guilford  placed 
in  his  hands  a  copy  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
and  this,  with  the  treatise  of  Archbishop  King,  perused 
the  year  before,  caused  all  his  prejudices  to  vanish, 
and  inspired  him  with  a  love  of  the  Liturgy,  which, 
contrary  to  his  former  belief,  he  found  to  be  collected 
for  the  most  part  out  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

The  direction  of  his  thoughts  may  be  learned  from 
the  books  which  he  read  after  retiring  from  his  tutor 
ship  in  the  college.  About  the  time  of  his  settlement 
at  West  Haven  he  began  a  catalogue  of  those,  which 
he  perused  with  evident  care,  and  curiously  enough, 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  13 

at  the  head  of  this  list  stands  the  Liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England,  followed  immediately  by  Potter  on 
"Church  Government/'  and  Patrick's  "Devotions;" 
and  a  little  later,  by  "The  Whole  Duty  of  Man/* 
Wall  on  " Infant  Baptism,"  Echard's  "  Church  His 
tory,"  and  Hooker's  "Ecclesiastical  Polity."  The 
shelves  of  the  well-selected  library  contained  other 
books  in  English  theology  —  among  them  the  works 
of  such  eminent  divines  as  Barrow,  Beveridge,  Bull, 
Burnet,  Hoadly,  Pearson,  Sharp,  Sherlock,  South, 
Taylor,  Tillotson,  Wake,  and  Whitby,  and  all  were 
included  in  the  list  of  those  which  passed  under  his 
review  and  consideration  during  the  brief  period  of 
his  residence  at  West  Haven.  So  much  was  he 
opposed  to  extempore  prayers  in  public  that  he  pro 
vided  himself  with  forms  drawn  chiefly  from  the 
Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  repeated 
them  with  a  fervor  which  won  the  admiration  not 
only  of  his  own  flock  but  of  persons  connected  with 
the  adjoining  parishes.  It  was  his  ordinary  practice 
to  compose  carefully  one  discourse  a  month ;  but  he 
read  attentively  the  sermons  of  Barrow  and  other 
celebrated  preachers,  and  so  charged  his  mind  with 
their  thoughts  that,  by  the  help  of  a  few  notes,  he 
delivered  the  substance  of  them  in  language  of  his 
own,  and  thus  acquired  a  facility  of  expression  which 
became  of  service  to  him  in  after  life. 

It  is  easy  to  foresee  the  influence  which  such  a  course 
of  reading  would  have  upon  a  candid  and  inquiring 
mind  like  that  of  Johnson.  It  threw  new  light  over 
subjects  that  had  long  embarrassed  him,  and  he  was 
unable  to  find  any  sufficient  support  for  the  Congre 
gational  form  of  church  government  or  for  the  rigid 


14  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Calvinistic  tenets  in  which  he  had  been  educated. 
He  spoke  his  doubts  to  his  literary  friends,  and  they 
shared  them  with  him ;  so  that  from  first  meeting  in 
a  fraternal  way  at  the  residences  of  each  other  or  in 
the  college  library,  and  examining  the  doctrines  and 
practices  of  the  Primitive  Church,  they  had  begun  to 
be  uneasy  and  anxious  about  the  form  and  authority 
of  their  own  discipline  and  worship.  How  to  conduct 
themselves  under  the  circumstances  was  a  delicate 
question.  There  were  six  of  these  earnest  inquirers 
besides  Johnson,  and  they  occupied  responsible  posi 
tions  in  and  around  New  Haven.  Cutler  and  Brown 
carried  on  the  college  ;  John  Hart  was  the  minister  at 
East  Guilford,  now  Madison  ;  Jared  Eliot  was  the 
minister  at  Killingworth  ;  Samuel  Whittelsey  at  Wall- 
ingford ;  and  James  Wetmore  at  North  Haven.  With 
the  exception  of  Cutler,  all  were  graduates  of  the 
college,  and  three  of  them  were  classmates,  who  had 
been  brought  into  very  intimate  association  with  each 
other.  Their  conferences  and  readings  led  them  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Church  of  England  was  the  near 
est  to  the  apostolic  model,  and  if  conformity  to  it  had 
been  an  easy  thing,  they  would  most  likely  have  re 
linquished  at  once  their  positions  and  made  the  change. 
Johnson  wrote  in  his  private  journal,  on  the  3d  of 
January,  1722,  these  honest  and  touching  words :  — 

I  hoped  when  I  was  ordained  that  I  had  sufficiently  sat 
isfied  myself  of  the  validity  of  Presbyterian  ordination  under 
my  circumstances.1  But  alas  !  I  have  ever  since  had  growing 

1  A  manuscript  of  Johnson  "written  at  Westhaven,  Dec.  20,  A.  D.  1719,"  entitled, 
"  My  present  Thoughts  of  Episcopacy  with  what  I  conceive  may  justifie  me  in  accept 
ing  Presbyterial  Ordination,"  gives  the  state  of  his  mind  three  months  before  he  was 
formally  set  apart  to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  In  this  paper  he  first  sets  down  his 
apprehensions  formed  from  the  best  light  he  could  obtain,  which  were  entirely  favor 
able  to  Episcopacy,  and  then  considers  the  circumstances  under  which  he  was  called 


OF    SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  15 

suspicions  that  it  is  not  right,  and  that  I  am  an  usurper  in  the 
house  of  God,  which  sometimes  I  must  confess  fills  my  mind 
with  a  great  deal  of  perplexity,  and  I  know  not  what  to  do  ; 
my  case  is  very  unhappy.  Oh  that  I  could  either  gain  satis 
faction  that  I  may  lawfully  proceed  in  the  execution  of  the 
ministerial  function,  or  that  Providence  would  make  my  way 
plain  for  the  obtaining  of  Episcopal  orders.  O  my  God,  di 
rect  my  steps ;  lead  and  guide  me  and  my  friends  in  thy  way 
everlasting. 

The  Church  of  England  scarcely  had  a  foothold  in 
Connecticut  at  this  time.  The  Kev.  George  Pigot,  a 
Missionary  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  arrived  at  Stratford  in  the 
spring  of  1722,  and  was  as  much  surprised  as  gratified 
to  receive  from  Johnson  an  early  visit,  and  learn  from 
him  the  direction  in  which  some  of  the  leading  minds 
in  the  colony  were  drifting.  He  was  pleased  to  accept 
an  invitation  to  hold  a  private  conference  with  the 
inquirers  at  New  Haven,  and  the  result  was  too  good 
to  be  kept  from  his  parishioners  and  from  the  knowl 
edge  of  the  Society  at  home.  Writing  to  the  Secre 
tary  in  August,  he  said :  "  The  leading  people  of  this 
colony  are  generally  prejudiced  against  their  mother 
church,  but  yet  I  have  great  expectations  of  a  glo 
rious  revolution  of  the  ecclesiastics  of  this  country, 
because  the  most  distinguished  gentlemen  among 

to  proceed.  Among  the  reasons  that  led  him  to  accept  Presbyterial  ordination  — 
were  "the  passionate  entreaties  of  a  tender  mother,"  the  effect  upon  the  College,  if 
he  publicly  declared  for  Episcopacy,  his  ''want  of  that  politeness  and  those  quali- 
ficatiorns  "which  would  be  requisite  in  making  such  an  appearance,"  and  the  not 
understanding  sufficiently  what  was  needed  to  take  Episcopal  orders.  "Although  I 
seem,"  he  adds  in  conclusion,  "tolerably  well  satisfied  in  these  my  thoughts  of 
the  right  of  Episcopacy,  yet,  considering  the  meanness  of  my  advantages  and  the 
scantiness  of  my  time  hitherto,  I  have  reason  to  be  very  jealous  whether  I  have  not 
too  much  precipitated  into  those  opinions,  and  then  finally  perhaps  I  may  in  the 
mean  time  be  doing  some  service  to  promote  the  main  interest  of  religion,  though  it 
be  not  as  a  method  so  desirable." 


16  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

them  are  resolvedly  bent  to  promote  her  welfare  and 
embrace  her  baptism  and  discipline,  and  if  the  leaders 
fall  in,  there  is  no  doubt  to  be  made  of  the  people. 
Those  gentlemen  who  are  ordained  pastors  among 
the  Independents,  namely,  Mr.  Cutler,  the  president 
of  Yale  College,  and  five  more,  have  held  a  conference 
with  me,  and  are  determined  to  declare  themselves 
professors  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  soon  as  they 
shall  understand  they  will  be  supported  at  home; 
they  complain  much,  both  of  the  necessity  of  going 
home  for  orders,  and  of  their  inability  for  such  an 
undertaking ;  they  also  surmise  it  to  be  entirely  dis- 
serviceable  to  our  church,  because,  if  they  should 
come  to  England,  they  must  leave  their  flocks,  and 
thereby  give  the  vigilant  enemy  an  opportunity  to 
seize  their  cures  and  supply  them  with  inveterate 
schismatics;  but  if  a  bishop  could  be  sent  us,  they 
could  secure  their  parishes  now  and  hereafter,  because 
the  people  here  are  legally  qualified  to  choose  their 
own  ministers  as  often  as  a  vacancy  happens,  and  this 
would  lighten  the  Honorable  Society's  expenses  to  a 
wonderful  degree." * 

Pigot  read  with  too  much  hope  what  he  regarded 
as  the  signs  of  the  times.  He  had  only  been  in  the 
colony  a  few  months,  and  his  interview  with  these 
gentlemen  had  made  him  sanguine  that  their  declara 
tion  for  Episcopacy  would  be  followed  by  the  con 
version  of  other  ministers  of  less  note,  as  well  as  by 
the  conversion  of  large  portions  of  their  respective 
flocks.  He  had  not  seen  how  the  spirit  of  the  old 
Puritan  opponents  of  the  Church  of  England  would 
rise  up  against  the  movement,  and  the  "glorious 

l  Documentary  History,  Conn.,  vol.  i.  p.  57. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  17 

revolution  of  the  ecclesiastics/'  if  not  a  picture  of  his 
imagination,  was  at  least  still  in  embryo.  Johnson, 
who  was  the  leader  of  the  van,  and  the  most  active 
among  them,  appears  to  have  kept  his  mind  open  to 
conviction,  for  after  making  an  entry  in  the  catalogue 
of  books  before  referred  to  of  the  works  of  Cyprian, 
he  added  immediately  under  it  these  words :  "  Which, 
with  other  ancient  and  modern  authors  read  for  these 
three  last  years,  have  proved  so  convincing  of  the 
necessity  of  Episcopal  Ordination  to  me  and  my 
friends,  that  this  Commencement,  September  13,  1722, 
we  found  it  necessary  to  express  our  doubts  to  the 
ministers,  from  whom,  if  we  receive  not  satisfaction, 
we  shall  be  obliged  to  desist." 


18  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 


CHAPTER  H. 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  JOHNSON  AND  HIS  FRIENDS  ;  STRUGGLE 
BETWEEN  FEELINGS  AND  DUTY;  DEBATE  BEFORE  GOVERNOR 
8ALTONSTALL  AND  ITS  RESULTS  J  EXTRACTS  FROM  NOTES  OF 
DAYS  ;  VOYAGE  TO  ENGLAND  FOR  ORDINATION  ;  ARRIVAL 
AND  RECEPTION;  PRIVATE  JOURNAL. 

A.  D.  1722-1723. 

THE  formal  declaration  of  Johnson  and  his  friends, 
made  by  request  of  the  Trustees,  recited  that  "  some  of 
them  doubted  the  validity,  and  the  rest  were  more  fully 
persuaded  of  the  invalidity  of  Presbyterian  ordination 
in  opposition  to  the  Episcopal."  They  asked  for 
"  satisfaction,"  and  time  was  allowed  for  further  in 
quiry  and  consultation,  in  the  hope  that  they  might 
get  rid  of  their  scruples,  or  at  least  be  quiet  and 
contented  in  their  positions. 

Johnson  entered  in  his  Notes  of  Days,  September 
17,  immediately  after  the  Commencement,  this  account 
of  his  feelings  :  — 

Being  at  length  bro't  to  such  scruples  concerning  the  valid 
ity  of  my  ordination,  that  I  could  not  proceed  in  administra 
tion  without  intolerable  uneasiness  of  mind,  I  have  now  at 
length  (after  much  study  and  prayer  to  God  for  direction), 
together  with  my  friends  (Mr.  T.  Cutler,  Mr.  J.  Hart,  Mr. 
S.  Whittelsey,  Mr.  Jared  Eliot,  Mr.  James  Wetmore,  Mr. 
Daniel  Brown),  after  some  private  conferences  with  minis 
ters,  this  Commencement  made  a  public  declaration  of  my 


OF   SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  19 

scruples  and  uneasiness,  and  am  advised  to  suspend  adminis 
tration  for  the  present.  It  is  with  great  sorrow  of  heart 
that  I  am  forced  thus,  by  the  uneasiness  of  my  conscience, 
to  be  an  occasion  of  so  much  uneasiness  to  my  dear  friends, 
my  poor  people,  and  indeed  to  the  whole  Colony.  O  God,  I 
beseech  Thee  grant  that  I  may  not,  by  an  adherence  to  Thy 
necessary  truths  and  laws  (as  I  profess  in  my  conscience  they 
seem  to  me)  be  a  stumbling-block  or  occasion  of  fall  to  any 
soul.  Let  not  our  thus  appearing  for  Thy  Church  be  any 
ways  accessory,  though  accidentally  to  the  hurt  of  religion 
in  general  or  any  person  in  particular.  Have  mercy,  Lord, 
have  mercy  on  the  souls  of  men,  and  pity  and  enlighten  those 
that  are  grieved  at  this  accident.  Lead  into  the  way  of  truth 
all  those  that  have  erred  and  are  deceived  ;  and  if  we  in  this 
affair  are  misled,  I  beseech  Thee  show  us  our  error  before  it 
be  too  late,  that  we  may  repair  the  damage.  Grant  us  Thy 
illumination  for  Christ's  sake.  Amen. 

The  General  Assembly  was  to  meet  in  New  Haven 
the  ensuing  October,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Gurdon 
Saltonstall,  the  Governor  of  the  Colony,  a  debate  was 
held  in  the  College  Library,  the  day  after  the  session 
commenced,  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  whole 
subject,  and  disposing  of  questions  that  had  created 
serious  alarm  in  the  public  mind.  "He  moderated 
very  genteely  "  on  the  occasion  ;  but  the  "  gentlemen 
on  the  Dissenting  side  "  had  not  directed  their  studies 
this  way,  and  hence  when  they  came  to  the  debate 
they  were  not  so  well  prepared  to  cope  with  their 
opponents  and  answer  their  arguments.  They  rested 
their  chief  objection  to  Episcopacy  on  the  promiscuous 
use  of  the  words  bishop  and  presbyter  in  the  New 
Testament ;  but  this  objection  was  met  by  citing  such 
Scripture  facts  as  the  evident  superintendency  of 
Timothy  over  the  clergy  and  people  at  Ephesus, 


20  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

of  Titus  in  Crete,  and  of  the  angels  of  the  seven 
churches  in  Asia.  The  history  of  the  first  and  purest 
ages  of  Christianity  was  also  appealed  to,  and  "  at 
length,"  says  Johnson  in  his  Autobiography,  "an  old 
minister  got  up  and  made  an  harangue  against  them 
in  the  declamatory  way  to  raise  an  odium,  but  he  had 
not  gone  far  before  Mr.  Saltonstall  got  up  and  said  he 
only  designed  a  friendly  argument,  and  so  put  an  end 
to  the  conference/' 

Eliot,  Hart,  and  Whittelsey  were  unable  to  with 
stand  the  alternate  fury  and  entreaties  of  their  friends, 
and  leaving  their  scruples  behind,  they  quietly  settled 
back  into  their  former  relations,  and  continued  to  the 
end  of  their  days  in  the  service  of  the  Congregational 
ministry.1  But  the  others  were  more  resolute,  and 
followed  their  convictions.  Johnson  made  a  private 
record  of  the  reasons  which  influenced  him  in  the 
step  they  were  about  to  take.  They  are  worth  pro 
ducing  here  in  full :  — 

Oct.  6, 1722.  —  In  the  fear  of  God  setting  myself  now  upon 
the  serious  consideration  of  the  great  and  urgent  affair  now 
under  my  hand  and  a  deliberate  examination  wherein  my 
duty  lies,  I  now  set  down  the  motives  which  lie  before  me  on 
both  sides  of  the  question,  whether  I  shall  now  go  over  to 
England  and  offer  myself  to  the  service  of  the  Church  ? 

1.  That  which  I  propound  to  govern  myself  in  general  in 
this  affair  is  the  awful  account  which  I  expect  to  give  of  all 
that  I  do  in  this  world,  before  the  dread  tribunal  of  God, 
where  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  shall  be  disclosed,  and  every 
one  shall  receive  according  to  his  work. 

2.  Though  I  have  been  a  grievous  sinner,  and  deserve  to 

1  Chandler,  in  his  Life  of  Johnson,  p.  31,  says:  "Amidst  all  the  controversies  in 
which  the  Church  was  engaged  during  their  lives,  they  were  never  known  to  act  or 
wy  or  insinuate  anything  to  her  disadvantage." 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  21 

be  left  of  God,  yet  as  those  instances  wherein  I  have  offended 
bear  no  relation  to  any  of  these  controversies,  and  therefore 
cannot  be  supposed  to  have  any  influence,  by  way  of  tempta 
tion,  to  the  present  undertaking,  but  (if  anything)  the  con 
trary;  so  I  do  renounce  and  abhor  them,  judge  and  condemn 
myself  for  them,  and  humbly  purpose  to  continue  forever  in 
watchfulness  against,  and  war  with  them,  —  and  to  make 
business  of  mortification,  by  God's  grace,  imploring  his  par 
don  and  mercy  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  therefore  I  hope  in  God 
He  does  not,  and  will  not  abandon  me  to  err  in  anything  of 
great  consequence. 

3.  God's  glory,   the  good  of  his  Church  in  general  and 
the  safety  of  precious  souls  in  particular,  are  the  ends  I  would 
always   and   particularly   in   the   present   case   have  in  my 
eye. 

4.  Upon  the  most  deliberate  consideration  I  cannot  find 
that  either  the  frowns  or  applauses,  the  pleasures  or  profits 
of  the  world  have  any  prevailing  influence  in  the  affair. 

One  week  later,  and  three  days  before  the  discus 
sion  in  the  College  Library  he  made  another  record 
thus :  — 

Oct.  13. —  Now  therefore  to  consider  particularly  what  lies 
against, — 

I.  In  the  first  place,  and  here  are  several  particulars. 

1.  Some  few  seeming  texts  o£  Scripture  and  a  possibility 
of  interpreting  all  on  the  side  of  and  in  favor  to  Presbytery. 

2.  Breaking  the  peace  of  the  country  in  general  and  my 
own  people  in  particular,  which  are  great  things. 

3.  Danger  of  the  stumbling  of   weak  brethren   and   the 
damage  of  precious  and  immortal  souls,  and  grieving  good 
men.     Now  these  considerations  are  indeed  of  great  weight, 
and  it  is  not  a  little  thing  should  be  sufficient  to  balance  them. 

II.  On  the  other  hand  I  consider,  — 

1.  Sundry  texts  of  Scripture  there  are  which  seem  to  me 
plainly  to  intimate  that  Episcopacy  is  of  apostolical  ap- 


22  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

pointment,  which  together  with  the  unanimous  witness  of 
the  Church  immediately  after  the  Apostles'  times  and  down 
ward  in  the  purest  ages  of  Christianity,  seem  as  much  at  least 
(if  not  more)  to  oblige  my  conscience  to  submit  to  Episco 
pacy  as  a  divine  appointment,  as  to  observe  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  and  therefore  do  as  much  oblige  me  to  declare 
in  favor  of  Episcopacy  in  this  country  as  for  the  Lord's  day, 
supposing  I  am  in  a  seventh  day  country. 

2.  If  this  be  therefore  a  divine  or  at  least  apostolical  in 
stitution  (as  I  am  fully  persuaded  it  is),  fear  of  breaking 
peace  should  not  shut  up  my  mouth  in  a  matter  of  so  much 
consequence. 

1.  Considering  first  that  this  country  is  in  such  a  misera 
ble  state  as  to  church  government  (let  whatever  hypothesis 
will,  be  right),  that  it  needs  reformation  and  alteration  in 
that  affair. 

2.  The  least  I  can  say  is,  that  I  was  in  so  much  doubt 
whether  my  ordination  was  lawful,  that  it  utterly  hindered 
my  devotion  in  administration. 

3.  I  am  indeed  forced  to  think  (comparing  my  case  with 
what  I  find  in  ancient  authors,  and  especially  in  S.  Cyprian) 
that  had  I  lived  and  administered  without  and  in  opposition 
to    Episcopacy,  I   should  have  been  excommunicated  for  a 
schismatic  in  the  purest  ages. 

4.  That  peace  without  one   of   Christ's   institutions  is  a 
false  peace,  and  it  is  best  being  on  the  surest  side. 

5.  There  may  be  offense  taken  where  there  is  none  given. 
If  others  are  damnified  by  my  doing  my  duty  I  cannot  help 
that,  however  I  endeavor  the  contrary. 

6.  There  may  be  more  souls  damnified  for  want  of  Episco 
pal  government  in  the  country  and  that  by  far  at  length, 
than  by  my  making  this  appearance. 

7.  If  I  am,  by  what  ordination  I  have  had,  consecrated  to 
God,  yet  I  am  not  on  this  account  guilty  of  sacrilege  for  that 
I  design  yet  to  devote  myself,  my  whole  life  to  the  service  of 
Christ  and  his  Church,  and  so  promote  the  good  of  precious 
souls,  and  this  (if  I  might  be  allowed,  and  so  far  as  I  am 
allowed)  in  this  place  [West  Haven]. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  23 

These  considerations  all  laid  together,  it  seems  to  be  my 
duty  to  venture  myself  in  the  arms  of  Almighty  Providence 
to  cross  the  ocean  for  the  sake  of  that  excellent  church,  the 
Church  of  England  ;  and  God  preserve  me,  and  if  I  err,  God 
forgive  me. 

This  transcript  of  his  feelings  is  a  proof  that  he  did 
not  expect  any  new  light  to  rise  from  the  debate  in 
the  College  Library,  and  shine  through  his  doubts. 
His  convictions  had  settled  into  a  definite  plan  of  ac 
tion,  and  the  23d  day  of  October  found  him  and  his 
two  friends.  Cutler  and  Brown,  on  their  way  to  Bos 
ton  to  embark  for  England.  It  was  a  slow  journey, 
and  reaching  Bristol,  in  Rhode  Island,  on  the  28th, 
he  made  a  note  thus,  —  "  We  were  most  kindly  enter 
tained  at  Bristol,  at  Colonel  Mackintosh's.  Here,  being 
Sunday,  I  first  went  to  church.  How  amiable  are  thy 
tabernacles,  0  Lord  of  hosts.  Mr.  Orem  preached." 
Taking  with  them  a  letter  from  this  gentleman  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  they  proceeded  to  Boston 
where  they  were  warmly  welcomed  by  friends  in 
terested  in  their  movement,  and  spent  a  few  days  be 
fore  embarking  in  the  ship  Mary,  commanded  by 
Captain  Thomas  Lithered.  JThese  friends  had  engaged 
their  passage  in  this  vessel,  and  very  kindly  at  their 
own  expense  they  provided  everything  necessary  for 
the  voyage.  The.  last  day  in  Boston  is  mentioned 
by  Johnson  in  his  private  journal  as  follows  : — 

November  4.  —  Sunday.  Mr.  Brown  and  I  read  the  Earl  of 
Nottingham  against  Whiston.  This  day,  by  God's  grace  I 
first  communicated  with  the  Church  of  England.  How  de 
vout,  grand,  and  venerable  was  every  part  of  the  adminis 
tration,  every  way  becoming  so  awful  a  mystery  !  Mr.  Cuth- 


24  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

bert  of  Annapolis  Royal,  preached.  To-morrow  we  venture 
upon  the  great  ocean  for  Great  Britain.  God  Almighty  pre 
serve  us  ! 

The  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago  was  a  momentous  and  awful  under 
taking.  It  was  not  attended  with  as  many  comforts 
as  now,  and  a  sailing  vessel  was  the  only  mode  of  con 
veying  passengers.  Business  rather  than  pleasure 
impelled  men  to  attempt  it,  and  strong  health  was 
needed  to  bear  its  hardships.  In  these  days  of  steam 
navigation,  when  quick  passages  in  large  floating  pal 
aces  are  confidently  anticipated,  we  are  apt  to  forget 
the  sacrifices  and  trials  of  those,  who  in  the  close  and 
narrow  cabins  of  sailing  ships,  were  tossed  for  weeks 
and  months  on  the  ocean,  and  entirely  dependent 
upon  favoring  gales  to  waft  them  to  the  point  of  their 
destination.  Johnson  in  a  fine  hand,  which  it  must 
have  required  the  sharpest  eyesight  to  have  written 
as  it  does  now  to  read,  kept  "  a  journal  of  his  voyage 
to,  abode  at,  and  return  from  England,"  and  some  idea 
of  his  perils  and  of  the  manner  in  which  he  employed 
his  time,  may  be  formed  by  liberally  extracting  from 
its  pages.  His  entries  during  the  outward  passage 
are  thus  made  :  — 

November  15.  —  We  have  been  even  ten  days  now  upon  the 
great  ocean,  and  have  had  much  contrary  wind,  made  small 
progress,  were  once  in  danger.  God  preserved  us.  To  whom 
be  glory.  May  He  send  us  a  good  and  prosperous  gale  of 
wind  for  Christ's  sake.  I  have  just  finished  reading,  since  I 
came  on  board,  the  Abp.  of  Cambray's  demonstration  of  the 
existence  of  God. 

20£A.  —  We  are,  through    God's  goodness,  safe    after  an 
other  grievous  storm. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  25 

23c?.  —  Just  finished  Mr.  Kettlewell  on  the  Sacrament, 
now  finished  Mr.  Herbert's  "  Temple." 

26th.  —  We  are  safe,  by  God's  goodness,  after  a  storm. 
Just  finished  Mr.  Nelson's  "  Practice  of  True  Devotion." 

29th.  —  Finished  Dr.  Taylor's  "Golden  Guide,  or  Guide 
to  Devotion  and  for  the  Penitent,"  and  "  Hudibras." 

Dec.  3c?.  —  Yesterday,  Dec.  2,  a  grievous  storm.  Thanks 
to  God  we  are  yet  safe  !  Three  last  week. 

Finished  Dr.  Bray  on  the  Baptismal  Covenant. 

5th.  —  This  week  tolerable  weather,   only  the  wind  too 
southerly. 
Finished  Osterwald's  Catechism. 

VltJi.  —  This  day  we  came  to  soundings. 

Finished  reading  "  The  Gentleman  instructed  in  the  con 
duct  of  a  virtuous  and  happy  Life."  Truly  an  excellent 
piece.  Dedicated  by  Dr.  Hicks. 

14A  —  This  day,  blessed  be  God,  we  first  came  in  sight  of 
land.  The  first  we  made  was  the  Isle  of  Wight,  having  been 
ten  days  without  an  observation.  We  were  marvelously 
conducted  by  the  good  hand  of  Providence  through  the  fog 
thus  far  up  the  channel :  cui  laus. 

Read  a  short  answer  to  a  Popish  Catechism.     Anon. 

Thus  ends  our  boisterous  and  uncomfortable  voyage,  after 
five  weeks  and  four  days. 

N.  B.  —  We  read  prayers  Sundays,  Wednesdays,  and 
Fridays. 

* 

It  was  purely  for  religious  purposes  that  they  en 
countered  such  perils  on  the  sea.  A  conscientious 
regard  for  what  they  believed  to  be  the  truth,  and 
not  ambition  or  the  spirit  of  adventure,  led  them  to 
great  self-sacrifices.  The  cordiality  of  their  reception 
in  England,  where  the  knowledge  of  their  affair  had 
preceded  them,  and  the  interest  and  enthusiasm  with 
which  they  viewed  everything  connected  with  the 
strength  and  glory  of  the  Church,  are  best  shown  by 
extracts  from  Johnson's  private  journal. 


26  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

December  15. —  This  day  we  arrived  safe,  by  God's  good 
ness,  at  Ramsgate,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  were  kindly  enter 
tained  at  Capt.  Lithered's  house,  whence  we  took  horse  and 
came  to  Canterbury  that  night,  being  Saturday. 

16th.  —  This  day,  being  Sunday,  we  went  to  church  (Dr. 
Cumberland  read  service)  at  the  magnificent  Cathedral  of 
Canterbury,  where  we  heard  one  Mr.  Archer  preach  on  the 
story  of  the  Ethiopian  and  Sfc  Philip.  In  the  afternoon  we 
were  by  mistake  directed  to  a  meeting.  After  which  we 
viewed  the  ancient  magnificence  of  the  Cathedral  and  heard 
evening  service  there.  84  Ps.  was  sung. 

11th.  —  This  day  we  went  to  service  again  at  the  cathedral, 
where  we  had  opportunity  for  further  view  of  that  stately 
building,  500  feet  in  length,  and  by  275  steps  we  ascended 
the  tower  of  it,  where  we  left  our  names.  In  the  afternoon 
we  waited  on  Dean  Stanhope,  who  was  pleased  to  take  a 
very  gracious  and  friendly  notice  of  us.  After  evening  ser 
vice  we  viewed  the  walls  of  the  city  and  other  instances  of 
ancient  magnificence. 

18fA.  —  This  day  we  waited  on  Dr.  Wilkins,  one  of  the 
Prebendaries,  —  after  which  we  went  to  service  ;  which  ended, 
we  took  a  further  view  of  the  city,  especially  the  churches, 
walls,  and  Tower,  then  dined  with  Dr.  Grandorgh,  who 
showed  us  the  Library  of  the  Cathedral,  etc.  After  evening 
service  we  were  invited  by  Mr.  Norris  to  his  house,  and 
spent  the  evening  there  in  company  with  Mr.  Hughes,  Mr. 
Gosling,  SenT  and  Junf,  who  expressed  great  civility  and 
kindness. 

\.Wi. — This  day  we  took  coach  and  came  to  Rochester  and 
Chatham,  and  there  lodged. 

20th.  —  This  day  from  thence  by  coach  we  came  to 
London. 

21st.  —  This  day  we  provided  our  lodgings  at  Mrs.  Wyld- 
man's,  in  Fetter  Lane,  after  which  we  were  at  the  Exchange 
and  N.  England  Coffee  House,  after  which  we  waited  on 
Mr.  Hay. 

23c?.  —  This  day,  being  Sunday,  in  the  forenoon  we  went 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  27 

to  service  at  the  famous  Cathedral  of  Sfc  Paul,  where  we 
heard  Mr.  Bramston  on  21  Mat.  9  v.  Hosamia.  In  the 
afternoon  we  were  at  Sfc  Mary's,  Aldermary,  where  we'  heard 
Mr.  Jno.  Berriman  on  1  Tim.  i.  15,  with  whom,  after  ser 
vice,  we  conversed  at  Mr.  Buckridge's,  from  whence  we  went 
to  Mr.  Hay's. 

24th.  —  This  day  we  went  to  Mr.  Hay's,  where  we  had 
opportunity  with  Dr.  Wm.  Berriman,  the  Bishop  of  Lon 
don's  chaplain,  from  whom  we  had  a  letter  to  Dr.  Ibbotson, 
the  Abp.  of  Canterbury's  chaplain,  wherewith  we  went  to 
Lambeth,  but  his  Grace  was  indisposed.  After  which  we 
went  over  from  Lambeth  to  Westminster  and  viewed  the 
Abbey  and  the  Hall,  and  sundry  ancient  monuments. 

25th.  —  This  day,  being  Christmas,  we  went  to  church  at 
S*  Dunstaii's,  where  we  heard  Dr.  Jenks  from  85  Ps.,  10,  11, 
—  "  Mercy  and  Truth,"  etc., — from  whom  we  received  the 
Holy  Eucharist,  after  which  we  took  coach  and  went  to  dine 
with  Sir  Edw'd  Blacket  (having  been  invited  by  the  Lady 
Blacket),  from  whence,  in  our  return,  we  were  at  evening 
service  in  Sl  Ann's  church. 

2Qth.  —  This  day  we  conversed  with  Mr.  Th.  Coram. 

21th.  —  This  day  we  were  at  service  in  the  morning  at 
S*  Andrew's,  Undershaft.  Dr.  Wm.  Berriman  read  service, 
who  after  prayers  informed  us  when  to  wait  on  the  Abp. 

Afternoon,  went  to  Westminster  and  S*  James's. 

2Sth.  —  This  day  we  went  in  the  morning  to  Westminster, 
where  we  conversed  with  Dr.  Fr.  Astry,  Treasurer  of  S* 
Paul's,  from  whence  we  came  to  the  N.  England  Coffee 
House,  where  we  -conferred  with  Mr.  Bridger  and  others  of 
our  acquaintance.  I  was  at  Evening  Prayer.  S*  Dunstan's. 

30th.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  service  at  the 
Cathedral  of  S*  Paul,  where  we  heard  one  Mr.  Seagrave 
from  Heb.  ii.  16  —  not  the  nature  of  angels.  In  the  afternoon 
we  were  at  the  Old  Jewry,  where  Mr.  Trapp  preached  from 
Heb.  iii.  13  —  of  the  Deceitfulness  of  Sin  —  with  whom  we 
conversed  afterwards. 

31s£.  —  This  day  we  went  with   Mr.   Coram  through  S1 


28  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

James's  Park  and  Chelsea  (where  we  viewed  the  fine  Hos 
pital)  to  Parsons'  Green  at  Fulham  to  dine  with  Mr.  Hall, 
who  treated  us  very  kindly  and  generously ;  coming  home, 
we  saw  the  place  of  K.  Charles'  execution. 

January  3^.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  intro 
duced  by  Mr.  Bridger  to  wait  on  Sir  William  Dawes,  the 
L'd  Archbishop  of  York,  who  treated  us  with  great  kindness 
and  condescension,  and  took  notice  of  our  affair.  After 
which  I  went  to  Dr.  Astry  and  conferred  with  him.  In  the 
evening  Mr.  Checkley  (just  arrived  from  N.  England)  came 
to  our  lodgings  to  visit  us.1 

4th.  —  This  day  I  went  in  the  morning  to  confer  further 
with  Dr.  Astry  about  going  to  Lambeth,  after  which  I  was 
at  Smithfield  and  S11  Andrew's,  Holborn,  thence  home,  and 
read  the  orders  and  papers  of  the  Society  and  the  Bp.  of 
Bristol's  and  Carlisle's  sermons. 

5th.  —  This  day  in  the  forenoon  we  (attended  with  Mr. 
Bridger,  Mr.  Sanford,  and  other  gentlemen)  waited  on 
Dr.  W.  Wake,  his  Grace  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  at 
his  Palace  at  Lambeth,  introduced  by  Dr.  Ibbotson.  His 
Grace  treated  us  like  a  Father  of  the  ch'h,  very  courteously, 
and  took  notice  of  our  affair  ;  we  returned  on  foot  round  by 
Southwark,  where  we  viewed  the  most  ancient  church  and 
monastery  of  S*  Mary  Overie.  .  .•  .  . 

6th.  —  This  day  (being  Sunday)  we  were  in  the  morning 
at  S?  Martin-in-the-Fields,  where  we  were  entertained  with 
a  most  amiable  and  profitable  sermon  by  Sir  Wm.  Dawes, 
the  most  excellent  Abp.  of  York,  a  most  wonderful  preacher ! 
His  text,  Gen.  xviii.  19, —  "For  I  know  him  that  he  will 
command,"  etc.  In  the  afternoon  I  was  at  the  Cathedral  of 
S*  Paul,  where  one  Mr.  Bowers  preached.  Jno.  i.  14.— 
'*  Full  of,"  etc. 

1th.  —  This  day  we  were  at  Dr.  Level's  at  Westminster. 

1  Johnson  wrote  on  the  fly-leaf  of  his  private  journal  thus:  —  "  N.  B.  I  speak  in 
the  plural  number  to  comprehend  Mr.  T.  Cutler  and  Mr.  D.  Brown,  who  were  con 
stantly  my  fellow-travellers;  and  after  Mr.  Brown's  death,  Mr.  Checkley ;  and  after 
his  arrival,  Mr.  Wetmore." 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  29 

8th.  —  This  day  we  waited  on  Dr.  Willis,  the  Bishop  of 
Sarum.  After  which  we  were  to  visit  Mr.  Rawlins,  and  dined 
at  Dr.  Lovel's  in  company  with  Mr.  Cummin.  In  the  even 
ing  we  received  Mr.  Honyman's  letters,  and  after  Evening 
Prayer  conferred  with  Mr.  Hay. 

\\th.  —  This  day  we  went  in  the  morning  to  wait  on  Dr. 
Nicholson,  the  Bishop  of  Londonderry ;  after  which  we  were 
with  Mr.  Humphreys,  the  Secretary  to  the  Society,  thence 
to  Mr.  Massey's,  from  thence  in  the  afternoon  we  went  to 
wait  on  Dr.  King,  the  Master  of  the  Charter  House,  with 
whom  we  conferred  on  our  affairs ;  after  which  we  viewed 
Guildhall,  and  spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Massey. 

15th.  —  This  day,  after  walking  about  the  city  and  con 
versing  at  the  N.  E.  Coffee  House  with  Mr.  Sanford,  etc., 
we  went  in  the  afternoon  (having  been  invited)  to  visit  Mr. 
Dommer,  a  Printer  by  Gray's  Inn  (which  we  took  a  view 
of,  and  of  the  fields  and  walks  by  the  way),  where  were  Mr. 
Cambel  and  Mr.  Whiston  (Arians  with  whom  we  had  a 
great  deal  of  talk  and  dispute),  as  also  Mr.  Massey  and  Mr. 
Rawlins. 

18th.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  first  with  Dr. 
Astry,  with  whom  we  went  (by  him  introduced)  before  the 
Hon.  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts.  Sir  William  Dawes,  A*bp.  of  York,  was  in  the  chair, 
who  with  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  present  received  us 
with  a  most  benign  aspect,  and  treated  us  with  all  imaginable 
kindness.  From  thence  we  went  with  Dr.  Berriman,  chap 
lain,  before  Dr.  Jno.  Robinson,  Bp.  of  London,  who  received 
us  very  graciously,  and  took  a  kind  notice  of  our  affair. 

20th.  —  This  day  (being  Sunday)  in  the  morning  we  were 
at  Sfc  Bride's,  where  we  had  a  charity  sermon  from  Deut. 
xv.  11,  12,  preached  by  Dr.  Th.  Biss ;  in  the  afternoon  we 
were  at  S*  Mary  le  Bow,  where  we  heard  Mr.  Smith  on 


30  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Death,  from  Job  xvii.  13  ;  in  the  evening  we  conversed  at 
home  first  with  Dr.  King,  Master  of  the  Chapter  House 
(who  gave  us  a  kind  visit),  after  that  with  Mr.  Checkley 
and  Dr.  Jones. 

21s£.  —  This  day  Mr.  Brown  and  I  were  with  the  Bishop 
of  London,  with  whom  we  conferred  further  upon  our  affair  ; 
he  treated  us  with  great  benignity  ;  from  thence  we  went  to 
dine  with  Dr.  Astry,  who  after  dinner  took  coach  with  us 
and  came  to  the  Chapter  House  by  S*  Paul's,  where  we  were 
kindly  treated  by  the  Committee  of  the  Society,  who  granted 
our  desire  ;  we  spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Massey,  Lewis, 
and  Humphreys. 

22d.  —  This  day,  alas  !  Mr.  Cutler  falling  sick  of  the 
small-pox,  Mr.  Brown  and  I  thought  best  to  remove,  and  we 
took  up  our  lodgings  at  Mr.  Gregson's  at  the  Two  White 
Fryars  by  the  Bolt  and  Tun  in  Fleet  Street  ;  after  which  we 
were  at  the  Coffee  House  and  Mr.  More's. 

23<^.  —  This  day  we  were  in  the  morning  with  Mr.  Hay 
for  his  advice,  from  whom  we  went  directly  to  the  Bp.  of 
London  to  Fulham  (to  his  Palace),  where  we  were  kindly 
entertained  by  Dr.  W.  Berriman,  with  whom  we  had  a  very 
free  conversation. 


.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  Dr.  Astry's, 
with  whom  and  Dr.  Berriman  we  came  to  wait  on  the  Society 
at  Bp.  Tenison's  Library,  who  granted  our  requests  and 
made  way  for  our  ordination.  After  which  we  were  at  Mr. 
Bridger's  and  at  evening  service  at  S*  Paul's  Cathedral. 

27th.  —  This  day  (being  Sunday)  we  were  in  the  morning 
at  Sl  Paul's,  where  were  present,  besides  the  Lord  Mayor 
and  Aldermen,  Sir  Peter  King  and  the  rest  of  the  Judges  ; 
one  Mr.  Wheatly  preached  from  1  Tim.  iii.  16.  The  mys 
tery  of  godliness.  In  the  afternoon  we  were  at  Westminster 
Abbey,  where  were  present  Sundry  Bishops.  One  Mr. 
Mandevil  preached  from  Matt.  v.  8.  Pure  in  heart,  etc. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  31 

.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  went  to  wait  on  Dr. 
Grandorgh,  upon  whose  invitation  we  took  coach  with  him 
and  went  to  Westminster  Hall  (it  being  Term  time),  where 
we  saw  the  several  courts  and  judges  sitting.  We  viewed 
likewise  the  Houses  both  of  Lords  and  Commons.  In  the 
afternoon  we,  with  Mr.  Checkley,  were  in  company  with  Mr. 
Hendley  and  Mr.  Lewis,  .two  clergymen,  and  Mr.  Wood  and 
others. 

February  ~Lst.  —  This  day  in  the  afternoon  we  were  at  Mr. 
Hay's,  and  spent  the  evening  at  the  Sun  Tavern  with  Messrs. 
Lewis,  Humphrey,  Vaughan,  Powel,  Vincent,  Wait,  Scul- 
lard,  etc.,  clergymen. 

4th.  —  This  day  we  were  to  dine  with  Mr.  Hendley  at 
Islington,  in  company  with  Mr.  Lewis,  Mr.  Checkley,  and 
Mr.  Wood.  After  we  came  home  we  were  in  company  with 
Philips  and  Calwel,  and  read  Irene,  a  play. 

5th.  —  This  day  we  were  at  Sion  College,  where  we  had 
the  benefit  of  two  or  three  hours'  use  of  the  Library  to 
examine  commentators  on  our  texts. 

6th.  —  This  day  we  were  not  out,  but  at  the  Theatre  in 
Drury  Lane  in  the  evening,  where  we  had  a  Tragedy. 

1th.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  service  at  S1 
Paul's  Cathedral,  where  Dr.  Chishul  preached  in  defense  of  the 
Trinity  against  the  Arians  from  Matt,  xxviii.  19,  —  "  Go  ye 
therefore,"  etc. ;  after  which,  with  Mr.  Checkley,  we  took  a 
view  of  that  stupendous  fabric,  ascended  to  the  top  of  the 
dome  by  five  hundred  and  fifty  steps,  which  with  the  Cupola 
and  Cross  make  four  hundred  feet  in  height.  We  were  in 
the  Library  also,  and  sundry  other  parts ;  viewed  the  cells, 
etc.  It  is  perhaps  one  of  the  finest  buildings  in  the  world  — 
an  amazing  mass  of  stones  !  In  the  evening  also  we  were  at 
service  there,  and  afterward  waited  on  Mr.  Jennings. 

Qth.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  first  with  Mr. 
Dummer,  the  agent ;  after  that  we  went  to  wait  on  Dr. 
Grandorgh,  who  presented  us  from  an  unknown  hand1  (whom 

1  Karl  Thanet. 


32  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

God  bless)  with  ten  guineas  apiece  ;  in  the  afternoon 
finished  reading  a  book  called  the  "  Scotch  Presbyterian 
Eloquence,"  and  after  that  I  finished  composing  my  sermon 
for  probation. 

1.0th.  —  This  day,  being  Sunday,  in  the  morning  I  heard 
at  S*  Mary's,  Aldermary,  Dr.  Kennet,  Bp.  of  Peterborough, 
preach  from  1  Thess.  iii.  11,  12,  —  "  Now  God  and  the  Father," 
etc.  After  which  I  saw  him  ordain  Mr.  Usher  and  another 
man.  We  dined  with  Mr.  Negus  ;  in  the  afternoon  we  heard 
Dr.  Watson  from  John  i.  11,  —  "  He  came  unto  his  own,"  etc. 

\\tli.  —  This  day  we  were  not  out.  I  read  Dr.  Hoadly's 
Sermon  on  the  "  Kingdom  of  Christ,"  and  his  "  Preserva 
tive  Against  Non-jurors,"  with  Snape's  and  Law's  answer. 

12th.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  service  at  the 
church  of  S'  Lawrence  Jewry,  where  Dr.  Moss,  Dean  of  Ely, 
preached  a  Lecture  from  Rom.  iii.  8,  —  "  Let  us  do  evil,"  etc. 
Afternoon  we  were  at  the  Coffee  House  N.  E.,  and  in  the 
evening  we  were  at  the  Theatre  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  where  we 
had  a  Comedy  —  The  Drummer.  N.  B.  —  This  same  day 
after  dinner  we  visited  the  good  people  of  Bedlam. 

13^.  —  This  day  we  were  not  out,  but  I  read  Dr.  Wood 
ward's  "  Young  Man's  Monitor,"  and  wrote  letters  to  my 
friends  in  N.  England. 


.  —  This  day  we  were  at  the  anniversary  meeting  of 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  at  S*  Mary  le 
Bow,  where  Dr.  J.  Waugh,  Dean  of  Gloucester,  preached 
from  1  Pet.  iii.  19,  20,  —  The  spirits  in  prison,  etc.  We 
were  at  evening  service  at  S*  Paul's,  and  in  the  evening  I 
was  at  the  Sun  Tavern  Club,  where,  besides  those  who  were 
there  before,  were  Messrs.  Hill,  Bridger,  Lewis,  and  another 
or  two. 


.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  service  at 
Westminster  Abbey,  after  which  we  went  to  visit  Mr.  More, 
<i  young  clergyman,  on  the  affair  of  Baptism  ;  he  was  very 
courteous. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  33 

24th.  —  This  day,  being  Sunday,  we  were  at  service  all 
day  at  S*  Dimstaii's,  West  ;  in  the  morning  Dr.  John  Wilcox, 
Bishop  of  Gloucester,  preached  from  1  Pet.  iv.  10,  —  "  As 
every  man  hath  received,"  etc.  Afternoon,  Dr.  Nath.  Mar 
shall  preached  on  Matt.  xix.  14,  —  "  For  of  such,"  etc. 


.  —  This  day  (being  Ash  Wednesday)  we  were  at 
service  at  S*  James*,  Clerkenwell,  where  Dr.  Jno.  Potter, 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  preached  from  2  Cor.  i.  12,  —  "For  our 
rejoicing  is  this,"  etc.  We  dined  with  Dr.  Massey. 

March  2.  —  This  day  not  out  but  to  buy  books.  We  saw 
a  wondrous  clock  that  performed  all  sorts  of  music. 

3c?.  —  This  day  (being  Sunday)  we  were  in  the  morning 
at  S*  Andrew's,  Undershaft,  or  S*  Mary  Ax,  where  Dr. 
Wm.  Berriman  preached  from  Jer.  xiii.  23,  —  "  Can  the 
Ethiopian,"  etc.  ;  in  the  afternoon  at  S*  Martins,  Ludgate, 
where  Mr.  Crow  preached  from  Luke  xiii.  5,  —  "I  tell  you, 
Nay  ;  but,  except,"  etc. 

4£A.  —  -This  day  we  heard  Esquire  Boyle's  Lecture  at  S* 
Mary  le  Bow  preached  by  Dr.  Burrough  from  Phil.  iii.  8,  — 
k4  Yea,  doubtless,  and  I  count,"  etc.  After  that  we  took  a 
walk  with  Mr.  Jno.  Berriman,  Mr.  Scullard,  and  Mr.  Wats, 
through  Moorfields  out  to  Ash  Hospital,  and  so  out  of  town 
through  the  pleasant  meadows.  In  the  evening  received  a 
visit  from  Mr.  David  Yale. 

5th.  —  This  day  we  went  to  *  Kensington  to  confer  with 
Dr.  Berriman  ;  we  were  admitted  to  my  Lord  of  London  ; 
there  we  dined  ;  after  which  we  drank  a  bottle  with  the 
Doctor  and  Secretary,  and  then  viewed  the  Royal  Palace  and 
Gardens. 

In  the  evening  at  S*  Paul's,  at  Sir  Christopher  Wren's 
funeral.  Statues. 

1th.  —  This  day  we  were  at  service  at  S*  Paul's,  where 
Dr.  Chishul  preached  again  against  the  Arians  in  defense  of 
the  Holy  Trinity  from  Matt,  xxviii.  19.     It  was  his  fourth 
3 


34  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

Lecture.  After  that  we  waited  on  Dr.  Knight  to  confer  on 
the  affair  of  Baptism.  He  treated  us  very  kindly.  We  vis 
ited  Buckridge. 

8th.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  service  at  Sl 
Paul's,  where  one  Mr.  Bearcroft  preached  from  2  Pet.  i.  10, 
—  Calling  and  election,  etc.  I  came  home  and  read  Dr. 
Delaune's  sermon  on  Original  Sin,  Whiston's  argument  about 
the  validity  of  ministries  and  the  appendices,  and  the  spirit 
of  some  late  writers  about  the  Bishop  of  Rochester's  com 
mitment. 

9th.  —  This  day  we  were  at  service  in  the  morning  at 
Westminster  Abbey  with  Mr.  Checkley,  with  whom  after 
wards  we  went  to  confer  with  Dr.  Knight  on  the  affair  of 
Baptism,  and  (nobis  tribus  an  legit!  mum  sit  apud  Presby- 
terianos  Baptisma  susceptum  graviter  dubitantibus)  hora  4 
pomeridianS  in  ecclesia  Sancti  Sepulchri,  Testibus  Dom. 
Johanne  Jones,  Isaaco  Cardel,  et  Dom.  Dorothea  Nightingale 
et  ministrante  Jeremitl  Nicholsono,  Doctor!  Knight  curato, 
privatum,  Baptisma  hypotheticum  recepimus.  Si  rectum 
hoc,  Deus  agnoscat,  et  si  alitercum  sit  simpliciter  actum 
ignoscat.  l 


.  —  This  day  we  heard  Mr.  Usher  at  St.  Antholin's, 
after  which  Mr.  Lazingby  invited  us  to  his  house  with  Mr. 
Oliver  and  Mr.  Scullard,  etc.,  clergymen  ;  then  we  with  Mr. 
Checkley  took  coach  and  went  to  Hampstead  to  wait  on  Mr. 
Cutler  home,  who  (I  thank  God)  is  recovered.  We  walked 
about  to  view'  that  town,  and  then  returned  and  went  to 
the  Theatre  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  where  we  had  the  comedy  of 
the  Merchant. 

13th.  —  This  day  we  went  to  Mr.   Bridger's,   and  from 
thence  to  Kensington  to  confer  with  my  Lord  of  London  on 

*  We  three,  having  grave  doubts  whether  Baptism  received  among  the  Presby 
terians  is  valid,  at  4  o'clock  P.M.  in  the  church  of  St.  Sepulchre  —  Mr.  John  Jones, 
Isaac  Cardel,  and  Mrs.  Dorothy  Nightingale  being  witnesses,  and  Jeremiah  Nichol 
son,  curate  to  Dr.  Knight,  ministering  —  received  private  hypothetical  baptism.  If 
this  be  right,  may  God  approve  it;  and  if  otherwise  than  sincerely  done,  may  He 
pardon  it. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  35 

the  affair  of  ordination.  We  drank  a  bottle  with  Dr.  Berri- 
man,  Mr.  Sherlock,  etc.,  and  had  letters  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury ;  in  our  return  were  in  the  Royal  Gardens. 

14th.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  first  waited  on  Gov 
ernor  Shute  and  then  on  the  Earl  of  Clarendon  at  Somerset 
House.  After  that  we  were  at  prayers  at  S*  Stephen's, 
Coleman  Street,  where  Mr.  Hay  catechised  and  preached  a 
lecture  on  the  Catechism ;  in  the  afternoon  we  were  at  Mr. 
Bowyer's,  the  Bookseller,  with  whom  we  drank  a  bottle ; 
after  that  we  went  up  to  the  top  of  the  glorious  Cathedral 
of  S*  Paul  and  viewed  the  town. 

~LSth.  —  This  day  I  was  at  Kensington  to  confer  with  Dr. 
Berriman  on  the  affair  of  ordination,  by  whose  application 
to  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  by  order  from  William,  Lord 
Apb.  of  Canterbury,  we  had  letters  dimissory  to  Thomas, 
Lord  Bp.  of  Norwich.  In  the  evening  I  read  the  "  Modern 
Protestant." 

19£A.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  went  to  wait  on  the 
Right  Reverend  Dr.  Thomas  Green,  the  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
for  ordination,  who  received  us  favorably.  Thence  we  went 
to  see  Mr.  Raw] ins  and  Lady  Blacket.  After  that  we  were 
at  the  N.  England  Coffee  House. 

20£/i.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  to  wait  on  Mr. 
Jennings  to  discourse  on  our  affairs ;  from  thence  we  went 
to  wait  on  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  who  examined  us  in  order 
for  ordination,  which  also  did  Mr.  Ellotson,  the  gentleman 
who  is  to  present  us ;  then  we  signed  the  Articles.  After 
noon  we  were  at  S*  Sepulchre,  where  Mr.  Brown  and  I  with 
Mrs.  Dorothy  were  witnesses  for  Mr.  Cutler  at  his  baptism. 
After  that  we  were  about  town  to  provide  robes,  etc.,  for 
ordination.  » 

2lst.  —  This  day  we  were  before  the  Society  at  the  Arch 
bishop's  Library  at  Sfc  Martin's  upon  our  affairs,  and  were  in 
the  evening  at  the  Half-moon  Tavern,  Cheapside,  wkh  the 
gentlemen  of  the  club  before  mentioned,  besides  whom  were 
others. 


36  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

22d. —  This  day  in  the  morning,  10  of  the  clock,  we 
waited  on  the  Right  Revd  Thomas,  Lord  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
and  at  the  parish  church  of  Sl  Martin-in-the-Fields,  after 
morning  Prayer,  we  were  first  confirmed  and  then  ordained 
Deacons.  In  the  afternoon  I  was  at  Prayers  at  Sl  Paul's, 
and  then  at  Mr.  Jonah  Bowyer's,  Bookseller. 

24th.  —  This  day  (being  Sunday)  we  were  all  day  at  Sl 
James's  Church,  where  in  the  morning  Dr.  Samuel  Clark 
preached  from  Heb.  xii.  16,  17,  —  of  Esau's  selling  his  birth 
right.  Afternoon,  Dr.  Ibbotson  preached  from  Luke  ix.  23,  — 
"  Let  him  deny  himself,"  etc.  In  the  evening  I  finished 
Abp.  Dawes,  etc.,  sermons. 

26th.  —  This  day  we  had  the  honor  to  dine  again  with 
Dr.  Francis  Astry,  and  spent  the  afternoon  at  his  house,  with 
Mr.  Carter,  a  clergyman,  our  benefactor.  After  that  we 
waited  on  Dr.  Nath.  Marshall,  with  whom  we  drank  a  bottle 
in  company  with  Dr.  Grey  and  Mr.  Wheatly,  clergymen, 
and  Mr.  Martin  and  Dr.  Walker,  in  both  which  conversa 
tions  we  had  great  kindness. 

28th.  —  This  day  we  were  in  the  morning  to  wait  on  the 
Bishop  of  Norwich.  Afternoon  we  were  at  Clerkenwell ; 
from  thence  we  went  with  Mr.  Checkley  to  see  the  Tower, 
where  we  viewed  the  armory,  both  horse  and  foot,  the  artil 
lery  and  regalia,  and  the  trophies  of  Sir  Francis  Drake,  and 
everything  to  be  seen  there ;  after  that  we  ascended  the 
monument,  one  hundred  and  two  feet  high,  by  three  hun 
dred  and  forty-five  steps.  Glorious  things  ! 

29th.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  I  was  at  service  at  S' 
Clement  Danes,  where  Mr.  R.  Leybourn  preached  from  Job 
vii.  16,  —  "I  would  not  live  alway,"  etc.  Otherwise  not  out. 

30£A.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  to  wait  on  the 
Bishop  of  Norwich,  whose  chaplain,  Mr.  Clark,  examined 
us.  The  Bishop  gave  us  his  fatherly  advice,  and  we  sub 
scribed  the  XXXIX.  Articles,  in  order  for  ordination.  We 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  37 

dined  and  spent  the  day  with  Mr.  Dummer  in  company 
with  Mr.  Massey  and  Mr.  Low. 

31s£.  —  This  day  at  6  in  the  morning,  Sunday,  at  the 
church  of  Sfc  Martin-in-the-Fields,  at  the  continued  appoint 
ment  and  desire  of  William,  Lord  Abp.  of  Canterbury,  and 
John,  Lord  Bishop  of  London,  we  were  ordained  Priests 
most  gravely  by  the  Right  Revd  Thomas,  Lord  Bp.  of  Nor 
wich,  who  afterwards  preached  an  excellent  sermon  from 
Rom.  ii.  4,  —  "  Or  despisest  thou,"  etc.  I  dined  with  Mr. 
Massey  in  company  with  Mr.  Godly  and  Mr.  Bull,  clergy 
men.  Afternoon  I  preached  for  Mr.  Massey  at  Sfc  Alban's, 
Wood  Street,  on  Phil.  i.  27.  We  all  spent  the  evening  with 
Mr.  Low. 

April  1.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  the 
Bishop  of  Norwich's  house  with  the  Secretary  for  our  orders. 
Afternoon  we  were  at  S*  Paul's  Chapter  House  and  the 
Chapter  Coffee  House. 

3<f.  —  This  day  we  dined  with  Mr.  Carter  (our  benefactor), 
with  whom  we  took  coach  and  came  into  town.  We  spent 
the  evening  at  Mr.  Massey's  with  Mr.  Price. 

The  errand  on  which  Johnson  and  his  associates 
appeared  in  England  served  as  an  introduction  to 
remarkable  persons  and  places.  Wherever  they  went 
they  were  sure  to  be  welcomed ;  and  the  interest 
evinced  in  their  entertainment  was  only  exceeded  by 
the  desire  to  send  them  back  to  their  country  pre 
pared  to  meet  the  new  responsibilities  laid  upon  them, 
and  to  engage  in  a  struggle  which  they  could  hardly 
hope  to  avoid  with  the  steady  foes  of  Episcopacy. 


38  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 


CHAPTER    IE. 

SICKNESS  AND  DEATH  OF  MR.  BROWN;  FURTHER  EXTRACTS  FROM 
PRIVATE  JOURNAL;  VISITS  TO  OXFORD  AND  CAMBRIDGE; 
ARRIVAL  OF  MR.  WETMORE  ;  DEPARTURE  FROM  ENGLAND,  AND 
VOYAGE  HOME  ;  SETTLEMENT  AT  STRATFORD  ;  LETTERS  TO 

THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON  ;  MARRIAGE. 
A.  D.  1723-1727. 

THE  dreadful  malady  from  which  Mr.  Cutler  had 
just  recovered  now  fell  upon  another  member  of  the 
party.  On  Thursday,  the  4th  of  April,  Brown  com 
plained  of  being  ill;  and  two  days  later  his  disease 
was  pronounced  to  be  -the  small-pox.  "  God  grant 
him,"  entered  Johnson  in  his  diary,  "  a  safe  deliver 
ance  ; "  and  the  same  day  he  removed  his  own  quar 
ters  to  an  apothecary  in  the  next  door.  He  does  not 
appear  to  have  thought  it  imprudent  to  remain  so 
near,  or  he  was  so  anxious  to  learn  each  day  the 
progress  of  the  disease,  and  the  signs  of  its  yielding 
to  treatment,  that  he  could  not  think  of  being  at  a 
distance  from  his  friend.  Edward  Jenner  was  not  yet 
born,  and  hence  his  great  discovery  of  vaccination 
as  a  preventive  of  the  small-pox  was  unknown  to  the 
medical  profession.  Individuals  were  then  subject 
to  it  in  its  worst  form  in  the  natural  way,  and  inocu 
lation  was  sometimes  resorted  to  as  a  means  of  escap 
ing  its  virulence,  and  securing  a  more  speedy  and 
perfect  recovery. 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  39 

For  nearly  a  week  Johnson  went  in  and  out  of  his 
new  quarters  visiting  noted  places,  and  mingling  with 
his  clerical  friends.  On  the  7th  of  April,  it  being 
Palm  Sunday,  he  was  at  the  Royal  Chapel,  S*  James's 
Palace,  where  he  saw  the  King,  George  the  Prince, 
the  Princess,  and  sundry  bishops  and  persons  of  the 
nobility.  Dr.  W.  Wake,  Abp.  of  Canterbury,  preached 
from  Luke  xiii.  6-9,  —  The  barren  fig-tree.  He  ap 
plied  it  to  the  present  state  of  the  nation.  It  is 
evident  that  the  symptoms  in  the  case  of  Brown  had 
not  become  alarming.  A  few  quotations  from  the 
journal  of  Johnson  will  best  tell  the  story  :  — 

April  9.  —  This  day  I  was  first  at  Child's  Coffee  House. 
We  dined  at  the  Cross  Keys  in  Holborn  with  Mr.  Ham 
mond,  in  company  with  Mr.  Massey  and  thirty  English 
gentlemen.  I  wrote  to  my  friends  in  the  evening. 

IQth.  —  This  day  we  were  at  S4  James's,  Clerkenwell, 
where  we  heard  Dr.  Sherlock,  Dean  of  Chichester,  preach 
from  Isaiah  liii.  8,  on  "  Christ's  sufferings."  Afternoon  I 
was  at  the  N.  E.  Coffee  House  with  Mr.  Sandford,  and  spent 
the  evening  (after  evening  service  at  S*  Foster's)  1  with  Mr. 
Berriman  and  Mr.  Scullard  at  Coach  Makers'  Hall. 

11th.  —  This  day  we  were  at  Whitehall  Chapel  at  service, 
to  see  the  ceremony  of  washing  the  disciples'  feet  performed, 
being  Maundy  Thursday.  Afterwards  we  met  Mr.  Oliver  at 
the  New  England  Coffee  House,  who  went  with  us  to  wait 
on  Mr.  Tryon,  the  Treasurer,  where  we  saw  Mr.  More.  In 
the  evening  I  removed  my  lodgings  to  Mr.  Skinner's. 

12th.  —  This  day  being  Good  Friday,  we  were  at  service 
at  the  Royal  Chapel  at  Sfc  James's,  where  Dr.  Stanhope, 
Dean  of  Canterbury,  preached  an  excellent  sermon  from 
John  i.  29,  —  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,"  etc.  I  was  at 
evening  prayers  at  S*  Martin's,  Ludgate. 

l  In  another  place  Johnson  speaks  of  "Sl  Foster's,  alias  Vedast."  The  reference 
is  to  S*  Vcdast'e  Church,  Foster  Lane,  built  by  Wren,  with  a  three  storied  spire, 
and  still  in  use  as  a  parish  church. 


40  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 


—  This  day,  thinking  Mr.  Brown  a  little  better,  Mr. 
Cutler,  Mr.  Manning,  and  I,  went  to  Greenwich,  where  we 
were  on  board  the  Royal  Carolina  ;  there  viewed  the  glorious 
Hospital,  then  the  Palace,  the  Park,  and  Royal  Observatory, 
and  after  '  that  Mr.  Crawley's  Iron  Ware  House.  But  woe 
is  me  !  alas  !  alas  !  on  our  return  we  are  accosted  with  the 
sorrowful  news  of  Mr.  Brown's  death.  O  Father,  not  my 
will,  but  thine  be  done  !  O  my  grief  !  I  have  lost  in  him 
the  best  friend  in  the  world,  —  a  fine  scholar,  and  a  brave 
Christian.  It  is  thy  will,  O  God  ;  let  me  be  silent,  and  shut 
my  mouth.  But  my  flesh  trembles  for  fear  of  Thee,  and  I 
am  afraid  of  thy  righteous  judgments.  O  give  me  grace  to 
be  resigned,  and  to  get  good  by  it.  O  prepare  his  friends 
for  the  news,  and  comfort  them.  O  save  and  spare  me,  if  it 
may  be  thy  will,  for  Christ's  sake. 

14ith.  —  This  day  being  Easter  Sunday,  Mr.  Checkley  and 
I  were  at  S1  Paul's  Cathedral,  where  we  had  a  sermon  from 
Rev.  i.  17-18,  —  "I  am  he  that  was  dead,  and  am  alive," 
etc.  We  received  the  Holy  Communion  from  the  hands  of 
Dean  Younger,  Mr.  Baker,  and  Mr.  Caiieton.  Afternoon 
we  were  at  Sl  Alban's,  Wood  Street,  where  Mr.  Massey 
preached  from  Is.  liii.  10,  —  u  When  thou  shalt  make  his  soul 
an  offering,"  etc.  With  him  we  went  home,  and  there  I 
lodged  that  night. 

\5th.  —  This  day  I  was  at  service  at  S*  John's  Chapel, 
Clerkenwell  ;  thence  to  Lady  Blaket's  and  Dr.  Astry's. 
After  that  I  went  to  Mr.  Berrimaii's,  who  with  Mr.  Scullard, 
and  Mr.  Wats  and  other  lay  gentlemen,  went  with  me  to 
divert  me  out  into  the  fields  and  meadows  to  the  new  bury 
ing  place,  where  I  saw  Mr.  Nelson's  tomb  ;  thence  to  Dr. 
Marshall's  and  Dr.  Astry's  ;  thence  to  Whitehall,  whence 
we  went  by  water  to  Mr.  Scullard's,  where  we  spent  the 
evening.  There  I  lodged. 

16th.  —  This  morning  Mr.  Scullard  went  with  me  to  see 
the  wine  vaults  and  water  works.  After  that  I  was  at 
S*  Bride's  to  hear  the  Spital  sermon  preached  by  Dean 
Waugh  from  1  Cor.  xiii.  13,  —  The  greatest,  charity.  The 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  41 

children  sang  wonderfully.  This  evening  my  dear  friend, 
Mr.  Brown,  was  interred  in  S*  Dunstan  in  the  West,  at 
tended  by  about  thirty  of  the  clergy  of  the  town. 

These  extracts  show  the  depth  of  Johnson's  sorrow 
at  the  death  of  his  classmate  and  companion.  The 
constantly  changing  scenes  through  which  he  passed 
could  not  put  it  from  his  mind.  It  was  the  one  great 
disappointment  of  his  journey,  and  he  often  referred 
to  it  afterwards  with  feelings  of  affectionate  sadness. 
When  human  props  fall  from  under  us  it  is  a  comfort 
to  be  able  to  lean  upon  divine  supports,  and  to  do 
what  is  imposed  upon  us  with  increased  faith  and 
diligence.  This  was  the  privilege  of  the  survivor  who 
mourned  so  deeply  the  loss  of  his  gentle  and  loving 
friend. 

The  private  journal  of  Johnson  carries  us  back  a 
century  and  a  half,  and  brings  to  view  now  and  then 
manners  and  customs  which  seem  strange  to  many  at 
the  present  day.  The  frequent  gathering  of  clergy 
men  at  coffee  houses  and  clubs  was  among  the  social 
habits  of  the  time,  and  as  little  was  thought  of  ac 
quaintances  meeting  at  the  "Vine  Tavern"  for  a 
literary  feast,  as  would  now  be  thought  of  a  party  of 
travellers  stopping  at  an  inn  and  asking  for  refresh 
ment  and  lodgings  for  the  night.  The  reader  will  be 
glad  to  have  introduced  more  of  the  notes  of  the  sub 
ject  of  this  volume.  They  are  brief,  and  written 
without  any  attempt  at  rhetoric  or  fine  description ; 
but  the  simple  words  are  graphic,  and  present  a 
lively  picture  of  what  the  writer  saw  and  heard :  — 

April  21. —  This  day  being  Sunday  I  preached  my  proba 
tion  sermon  on  Phil.  i.  27,  at  S*  Dionis  Back  Church,  in 
Fenchurch  Street,  before  Dr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Hay,  members 
of  the  Society.  We  dined  at  Mr.  Bridgets  with  the  clergy- 


42  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

man,  his  brother.  After  dinner  we  took  coach  to  Trinity 
Chapel,  in  Hanover  Square,  where  I  preached  the  same  be 
fore  sundry  persons  of  quality.  We  spent  the  evening  at  the 
Dean  of  Ely's,  Dr.  Moss,  with  the  two  Finches,  Mr.  Finch 
and  the  Dean  of  York,  and  Mr.  Massey  and  Mr.  Collens. 

22d.  —  This  day  I  read  Morning  Prayers  for  Dr.  Polling 
at  Sl  Ann's  ;  in  the  afternoon  we  walked  in  Lincoln's  Inn 
Fields,  were  a  considerable  time  in  the  Library,  and  at 
Evening  Prayers  in  the  Chapel,  and  after  that  at  Sl 
Foster's  ;  thence  to  Moorfields,  where  we  saw  a  remarkable 
gun  which  went  oft  eleven  times  in  a  minute  ;  spent  the 
evening  with  Mr.  Wheatly,  Berriman,  Scullard,  and  the 
other  company,  at  Mr.  Kodden's. 

23<i.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  went  to  drink  a  dish 
of  tea  with  Mr.  Collens,  a  very  worthy  clergyman  ;  after 
that  we  were  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  thence  to  John's  Coffee 
House  in  Swithin's  Lane,  with  sundry  clergymen  ;  then  at 
N.  England  Coffee  House  with  Mr.  Harrison  ;  after  that  we 
waited  on  Dr.  Barrowby,  a  worthy  gentleman,  our  physician  ; 
we  spent  the  evening  at  the  Vine  Tavern  with  Messrs.  Ber 
riman,  Lewis,  Scullard,  Higgot,  Champion,  Brigen,  Wait, 
Vaughan,  Rice,  and  Bp.  Bradford's  son. 

24th.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  visited  Mrs.  Kitty 
Lockwood,  and  then  Mr.  Rawden  ;  after  that  we  were  at 
Morning  Prayers  at  Lincoln's  Inn  ;  thence  we  took  a  walk 
in  Sl  James's  Park,  and  dined  with  Dr.  Astry.  We  were  at 
Evening  Prayers  at  Sl  Foster's,  and  spent  the  evening  at  Mr. 
Jno.  Berriman's  with  Mr.  Wheatly,  Mr.  Wait,  and  the  other 
gentlemen. 


29^.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  waited  on  Dr.  Ed 
mund  Gibson,  Lord  Bishop  of  London,  lately  advanced,  who 
treated  us  very  kindly  ;  thence  we  were  at  Court  ..... 

30^/i.  —  This  morning  we  were  at  Westminster  Abbey, 
where  we  viewed  the  cloisters  and  monuments,  and  by  Mr. 
Church's  means  saw  the  school  and  dormitory,  as  also  Abp. 
Laud's  own  handwriting,  and  the  original  names  and  war 
rant  of  the  Regicides.  We  dined  with  Mr.  Truby  and  Mr. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  43 

Bowyer  ;  then  we  were  at  Mr.  Downing's,  thence  to  wait  on 
Dr.  Rennet,  with  whom  we  spent  the  evening. 

May  1.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  Mr. 
Scutlard's,  with  whom  we  went  to  Mr.  C  Ion  don's,  who  con 
ducted  us  to  Gresham  College  to  Dr.  Woodward's,  thence  to 
the  work  house,  thence  we  went  to  prayers  at  Sfc  Mildred's, 
Poultry.  Mr.  Scullard  read  prayers.  Thence  we  went  to 
John's  Coffee  House  in  company  with  sundry  clergymen. 
We  dined  at  Mr.  Tryon's ;  after  that  we  were  at  Mr. 
Bowyer 's  with  Dr.  Snape  and  Dr.  Colebatch,  and  waited  on 
Sub-Dean  Gosling  ;  were  at  Chapter  Coffee  House  with  Dr. 
Grey  and  Mr.  Wheatly.  Supped  at  the  Old  Devil  Tavern 
with  Mr.  Manning  and  Mr.  Wood. 

2d.  —  This  day  I  was  at  Mr.  Checkley's ;  then  we  were  all 
at  Dr.  Grey's  and  Dr.  Marshall's,  with  whom  we  spent  the 
evening.  Read  Dr.  Woodward's  remarks  on  the  ancient  and 
present  state  of  London. 

3c7.  —  This  day  we  dined  with  Dr.  Woodward  at  Gresham 
College,  who  showed  us  his  fine  collection  of  rarities,  of 
animals,  minerals,  antediluvian  shells,  Roman  urns,  and  other 
antiquities  of  2  or  3000  years.  After  that  Mr.  Wilmer 
showed  us  his  collection  of  plants.  We  spent  the  evening  at 
Mr.  Berrirnan's ;  I  finished  Dr.  Berriman's  sermon  at  Induc 
tion. 

£th.  —  This  day  I  was  at  my  Lord  Mayor's  with  Messrs. 
Rawden,  Chapman,  and  Pope,  thence  to  Sfc  Mary-le-Bow,  at 
the  confirmation  of  Dr.  Edmund  Gibson,  Bp.  of  London ;  we 
dined  at  Mr.  Carter's  with  Dr.  Moss,  Dean  of  Ely,  who  took 
us  into  his  coach  and  brought  us  to  Holborn,  and  thence  we 
went  to  Mr.  Jenks',  with  whom  we  conversed,  and  after  that 
with  Mr.  Middleton. 

5th.  —  This  day  being  Sunday  I  read  prayers  at  S* 
Michael,  Queenhithe.  Mr.  Estwick  preached  from  1  Pet.  ii. 
21,  on  "  Christ's  example."  I  assisted  in  the  administration 
of  the  Sacrament.  We  dined  at  Mr.  Scullard's ;  for  him  I 
preached  at  Sfc  Antholin's  ;  afterwards  we  were  ....  at 
Dr.  Baile's ;  thence  we  went  to  S*  Ann's,  where  Mr.  Cutler 


44  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

preached  for  Mr.  Wheatly  on  Eccl.  xii.  13,  14,—  "Fear 
God,"  etc.  With  him  we  dined. 

6th.  —  This  day  I  was  at  Mr.  Bowyer's,  where  I  saw  the 
Bishop  of  Rochester  as  he  came  from  the  Tower  to  the  House 
of  Lords  ;  thence  we  went  to  Dr.  Grey's,  and  we  dined  with 
Mr.  Rawden  in  company  with  Mr.  Abbot  and  Mr.  Jenner. 

1th.  —  This  day  we  heard  Dr.  Roderick  preach  a  Latin 
sermon  at  Sion  College  from  these  words  :  "  He  that  endureth 
to  the  end  shall  be  saved."  After  which  we  dined  there  in 
company  with  about  fifty  of  the  clergy  convened  on  that 
occasion.  After  that  we  went  over  the  river  with  Mr.  Scul- 
lard  and  viewed  Sl  Saviour's  Church,  i.  e.  S*  Mary  Overie's, 
and  then  the  water  works,  and  spent  the  evening  at  the 
Vine  with  our  former  acquaintances.  - 

8th.  —  This  day  we  took  horses  and  went  in  company 
with  Mr.  Waterman  to  Harrow-on-the-Hill,  to  wait  on  Mr. 
Cox,  with  whom  we  dined,  and  after  that  w$  went  to  Eton 
and  Windsor. 

9th.  —  This  day  we  visited  the  Castle  and  Palace  at 
Windsor,  and  after  that  we  went  to  Hampton  Court,  and 
saw  the  fine  palaces  there,  in  both  which  glorious  places  we 
saw  everything  curious,  magnificent,  or  entertaining,  and  then 
returned  this  evening  to  London. 


—  This  day  we  were  first  at  Mr.  Bowyer's  to  see  the 
Bishop  of  Rochester  go  by  ;  thence  we  went  to  Court,  thence 
to  Dr.  Grey's,  and  spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Berriman, 
Scullard,  East,  etc. 

12^.  —  This  day,  Sunday,  I  heard  Dr.  Thomas  Wilson, 
the  Bishop  of  Sodor  and  Man,  preach  from  Mar.  xii.  32-34,  — 
Of  the  love  of  God,  —  at  Sfc  Vedast  Foster's.  We  dined  at 
Mr.  Scate's.  Afternoon  I  preached  before  that  Bishop  for 
Mr.  Berriman  at  SL  Mary's,  Aldermary.  After  service  we 
were  at  Mr.  Scate's  again  with  the  Bishop.  After  that  Mr. 
Berriman  and  I  went  to  the  Tower,  and  we  spent  the  evening 
at  Mrs.  Parker'c. 

.  —  This  day  we  went  with   Dr.  Grey  to  view  Sion 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  45 

College  Library,  where  we  saw  John  Wickliff  s  Bible,  original 
manuscript,  then  we  went  to  Moorfields.  After  dinner  we 
were  at  'Change,  we  were  at  the  Chapter  House  and  Coffee 
House  with  Dr.  Lang  and  Mr.  Oliver,  we  spent  the  evening 
in  visiting  Walter  Newbury,  a  Quaker  countryman  ;  finished 
Mr.  Wheatly's  Tract  of  "  Bidding  Prayer." 

14th.  —  This  day  we  heard  Dr.  Moss,  Dean  of  Ely,  at  S* 
Lawrence  Jewry,  preach  on  the  Eternity  of  Hell  Torments, 
—  Matt.  xxv.  ult.,  —  with  whom  and  about  twenty  clergy 
men  we  were  at  the  Coffee  House  afterwards  ;  we  spent  the 
afternoon  at  Mr.  Truby's  with  Mr.  Oliver,  Dr.  Jones,  and 
one  or  two  clergymen. 

~L5th.  —  This  day  we  were  first  to  wait  on  Dr.  Marshall, 
who  (being  the  King's  chaplain)  introduced  us  into  the 
Palace  of  S*  James,  where  we  were  at  prayers  with  the 
young  Princesses,  and  had  the  honor  to  kiss  their  hands. 
We  dined  there  with  the  King's  chaplain,  and  after  that  went 
home  with  Dr.  Marshall,  and  waited  on  the  Dean  of  Ely  and 
Dr.  Grey. 

16th.  —  This  day  we  were  at  S*  Paul's  Cathedral,  at  the 
Installation  of  Edmund,  Bishop  of  London,  performed  by 
Dr.  Bowers,  Bp.  of  Chichester,  and  the  whole  chapter.  Af 
ternoon  we  were  there  again  at  service,  after  that  with  Mr. 
Negus,  after  that  at  S*  Foster's,  and  went  with  Mr.  Berri- 
man  to  the  Tower,  and  spent  the  evening  with  him  and  Mr. 
Garden. 

Vlth.  —  This  day  in  the  mowiing  we  waited  on  Dr.  Astry  ; 
thence  we  went  to  Tyburn  to  see  Counselor  Layer  hanged. 


.  —  This  day  I  read  prayers  in  the  morning  at  S' 
Magnus  for  Mr.  Scullard,  with  whom  I  dined.  Afternoon 
I  preached  before  Dr.  Waddington  [afterwards  Bishop  of 
Chichester]  at  All  Hallows  the  Great  for  Dr.  Berriman. 
After  service  we  were  at  Mr.  Shaler's  with  Mr.  Berriman 
and  Mr.  Scullard  ;  thence  to  Mr.  Checkley's,  and  spent  the 
evening  with  Mr.  Webster. 

20th.  —  This  day  we  took  coach  and  came  to  Oxford,  and 
lodged  at  the  Angel  Inn. 


46  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 


.  —  This  clay  first  we  waited  on  Dr.  Slrippen,  the  Vice- 
Ghancellor  at  Brasen  Nose  College  ;  thence  we  went  to  Trin 
ity  College,  where  Mr.  Stockwell  showed  us  the  fine  gardens 
and  Chapel  of  the  College.  We  dined  with  Dr.  Shippen, 
V.  C.,  and  thence  we  waited  on  Mr.  Trognair,  Green,  and 
Atkinson  of  Queen's  College,  with  whom  and  the  rest  of  the 
Fellows  we  supped  in  the  Hall  and  saw  the  Chapel  and 
Library,  and  spent  the  rest  of  the  evening. 

22(7.  —  This  day  we  went  first  to  Pembroke  College  to 
wait  on  Dr.  Painting  and  Mr.  Lockton,  who  showed  us  the 
gardens  ;  thence  we  went  to  Magdalen  College,  where  we 
dined  with  Mr.  Warton  (and  the  Fellows),  who  after  a  little 
conversation  went  with  us  to  the  famous  Bodleyan  Library, 
which  we  viewed,  and  the  Antiquity  and  Picture  Galleries  ; 
thence  to  the  glorious  Theatre  and  Printing  House  ;  thence 
to  Trinity  College  to  wait  on  Dr.  Dobson,  Mr.  Ball,  and  Mr. 
Stockwell  ;  here  we  were  at  Evening  Prayers  ;  thence  we 
went  to  Corpus  Christi  College  to  wait  on  Mr.  Bar.  Smith, 
who  showed  us  the  gardens,  library,  manuscripts,  and  chapel 
of  that  College  ;  after,  removed  lodgings  to  Mr.  Barnes. 

23d.  —  This  day  (being  Ascension  day)  we  went  to  wait 
on  Mr.  Conybeare  of  Exeter  College,  who  went  with  us  to 
Christ  Church,  the  Cathedral,  where  Mr.  Wyat  preached 
before  the  University. 

24th.  —  This  day  we  were  first  at  Queen's  College  with 
Mr.  Trognair  ;  thence  we  went  to  Merton  to  wait  on  Mr. 
Moseley  ;  thence  to  Trinity  College  to  dine  with  Dr.  Dob- 
son,  President,  who  brought  us  into  the  schools  where  Dr. 
Potter,  Bp.  of  Oxford,  was  Moderator  to  a  Theological  Dis 
pute  on  Baptism  and  Prayers  for  the  Dead  ;  thence  we 
went  with  Mr.  Atkinson  to  the  Printing  House  and  the 
Museum,  where  we  saw  all  the  curiosities  of  the  air-pump 
and  other  engines,  the  skeletons,  mummies,  medals,  jewels, 
antiquities,  etc  ..... 

25£/t.  —  This  day  in  the  morning  we  were  at  prayers  at 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  47 

Quern's  College  ;  thence,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Smith  of  S1 
John's,  we  went  first  to  Oriel  College,  thence  to  Corpus 
Ohristi,  thence  to  Christ's  Church,  where  we  saw  the  ancient 
monuments,  painting  on  the  glass,  etc. 

26th.  —  This  day  (being  Sunday)  we  were  at  service  at 
Queen's  College  Chapel,  and  thence  to  S*  Mary's  Church, 
where  Mr.  Owen  preached  on  Christ's  Ascension,  —  S* 
Mar.  tilt.,  —  "  He  was  received  up  into  heaven,"  etc.  We 
dined  at  Dr.  Shippen's,  V.  Cli.,  with  Dr.  Delaune  and  Mr. 
Leybourne,  etc.,  where  we  received  our  Diplomas  for  the 
Degrees.  After  that  we  walked  in  the  fields,  and  were  at 
evening  service  at  S*  John's  College,  where  cxxxix.  Ps.  was 
sung.  We  spent  the  evening  at  Corpus  Christi  College  in 
company  with  Mr.  Smith,  Aylmer,  Burton,  etc. 

21th.  —  This  day  we  went  with  Mr.  B.  Smith  to  see  the 
Bodleyan  Library,  the  medals  and  antiquities,  the  manu 
scripts  and  curiosities  of  that  glorious  structure  ;  thence  we 
went  to  the  Vice-Chancellor's,  whence  we  had  the  honor  to 
ride  in  his  coach  in  company  with  Dr.  Delaune,  President  of 
Sfc  John's  College,  and  Dr.  Dobson,  President  of  Trinity,  to 
Cuddesdon,  to  wait  on  Dr.  Jno.  Potter,  Bishop  of  Oxford, 
who  treated  us  with  the  utmost  civility.  With  him  we  had 
the  honor  to  dine  and  spend  the  afternoon,  and  after  our 
return  we  spent  the  evening  with  Dr.  Delaune. 

28th.  —  This  day  we  first  waited  on  Dr.  Francis  Gastrel, 
Bp.  of  Chester  ;  then  we  dinectwith  Mr.  Conybeare  at  Exeter 
College  ;  thence  we  took  horses  and  rode  out  to  see  the 
famous  seat  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  at  Blenheim,  in 
company  with  Mr.  Burton  and  Mr.  Greenaway  —  a  most 
magnificent  structure,  gardens,  and  bridge.  We  spent  the 
evening  with  Burton. 

29th.  —  This  day  being  Restauration,  we  were  at  church  at 
S*  Mary's,  where  Dr.  Felton,  Principal  of  Edmund  Hall, 
preached  on  Ps.  50,  —  Offer  unto  God  thanksgiving,  —  an 
excellent  sermon ;  then  we  had  the  honor  to  dine  with  Dr. 
Gastrel,  Bp.  of  Chester.  Afternoon  we  were  with  our  ac- 


48  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

quaintanee  at  Corpus  Christi,  where  we  supped  with  the 
Fellows  in  the  Hall ;  with  them  we  walked  in  the  fields, 
and  spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Greenaway  at  Hart  Hall, 
having  been  before  at  Queen's. 

3Qth.  —  This  day  we  went  first  to  wait  on  the  learned  Mr. 
Sam1  Parker  ;  thence  to  Sl  M.  Magdalene,  where  Mr.  Dud 
ley  Woodbridge  showed  us  the  Park,  President's  garden, 
....  etc.  ;  thence  we  went  to  Edmund  Hall  and  took  our 
leave  of  Dr.  Felton  ;  thence  to  the  public  Schools  and  Con 
vocation  House,  where  was  a  congregation,  and  the  Vice- 
Chancellor  gave  degrees  to  some  gentlemen  ;  we  dined  with 
the  Fellows  of  Queen's  College  and  took  our  leave  of  them  ; 
then  of  Dr.  Dobson  and  the  Fellows  of  Trinity,  then  of  the 
Vice-Chancellor,  and  then  of  Dr.  Delaune  and  Dr.  Haywood 
at  Sfc  John's.  We  spent  our  evening  with  sundry  gentlemen 
at  Mr.  Blathwait's,  and  thus  we  take  our  leave  of  Oxford. 

31s£.  —  This  day  we  took  coach  and  came  to  London. 

Their  return  to  the  metropolis,  after  an  absence  of 
ten  days,  was  followed  by  the  renewal  of  civilities 
to  their  friends,  and  preparations  for  a  visit  to  Cam 
bridge. 

June  3.  —  This  day  we  were  first  at  Westminster  to  wait 
on  Edmund,  Bp.  of  London,  who  treated  us  very  kindly ; 
thence  at  Whitehall,  now  Banqueting  House ;  thence  I  went 
to  Mr.  Downing's,  thence  to  N.  E.  Coffee  House  and  wrote 
home.  We  dined  with  Mrs.  Cardel,  were  at  Evening  Prayers 
at  S*  Foster's,  and  spent  the  evening  at  the  Queen's  Head 
with  Messrs.  Wheatly,  Ryan,  Berriman,  Jebb,  and  Wag- 
staff  a  nonjuring  clergyman. 

6th.  —  This  day  (being  Thursday  in  Whitsun  week)  we 
first  drank  a  dish  of  tea  with  Mr.  Berriman,  with  whom  we 
went  to  Gresham  College,  where  the  charity  children  meet, 
whence,  in  company  with  a  great  number  of  the  clergy,  we 
went  in  procession  before  the  children  to  S*  Sepulchre's, 
where  there  was  a  sermon  preached  on  the  occasion  by  Dr. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  49 

Waterland,  from  Prov.  xxii.  7,  —  "  Train  up,"  etc.  The  chil 
dren,  to  the  number  of  4  or  5,000,  sung  gloriously  —  the 
finest  emblem  of  heaven  in  the  world. 

7th.  —  This  day  we  took  coach  and  came  to  Cambridge. 

Here  the  same  kind  attentions  were  bestowed  upon 
them  as  in  Oxford.  They  first  paid  their  respects  to 
the  heads  of  several  of  the  colleges,  and  visited  King 
Henry's  Chapel  and  the  Library  of  Trinity.  Johnson 
continues  his  notes  :  — 

9th.  —  This  day  (being  Trinity  Sunday)  we  were  in  the 
morning  to  drink  a  dish  of  tea  with  Dr.  Laney  at  Pembroke, 
with  whom  we  went  to  service  at  S*  Mary's  Church,  where 
Mr.  Trotter  preached  from  Luke  xxi.  15,  —  "  Give  a  mouth 
and  wisdom,"  etc.  We  dined  with  Dr.  Ashton  at  Jesus  Col 
lege,  were  afternoon  at  S1  Mary's  again,  where  Mr.  Pearce 
preached  from  S*  John  xiv.  16,  —  "I  will  pray,"  etc.  W 
were  at  evening  service  at  Trinity  College  Chapel,  where 
was  fine  music ;  we  supped  at  Trinity  Hall 

~LQth.  —  This  day  we  first  drank  a  dish  of  tea  with  Dr. 
R.  Jenkins,  Master  of  S*  John's  College  ;  after  that  we  were 
to  see  the  Pictures,  Library,  and  curiosities  there ;  thence  we 
waited  on  Dr.  Middleton,  Prof,  bibliothecarum,  who  showed 
us  the  Royal  Library  given  by  K.  George  ;  thence  we  went 
to  dine  with  Dr.  Dickens,  in  company  with  Dr.  Warren,  Mr. 
Oldsworth,  and  Dr.  Berriman  ;  thence  we  all  went  to  Em- 
anuel  College,  were  there  at  evening  service,  and  in  the  gal 
lery  and  library  and  gardens.  We  supped  and  spent  the 
evening  with  Mr.  Marshall. 

\\tJi.  —  This  day  we  went  in  the  morning  to  wait  on  Mr. 
Mickleborough  of  Bennet  or  Corpus  Christi,  whence  we  went 
to  church  at  S*  Mary's,  where  Mr.  Fosset  preached  a  Latin 
sermon  on  Church  discipline  from  1  Cor.  v.  2.  We  went  to 
the  congregation  where  the  Vice-chancellor,  Dr.  Cross  (in 
the  room  of  Dr.  Snape,  absent),  with  the  rest  of  the  Doctors 
and  Masters  sat,  and  we  with  others  received  our  Degrees, 
pro  forma.  After  that  we  dined  with  the  Vice-chancellor 
4 


50  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

in  company  with  Dr.  Laney,  the  two  Proctors,  and  Mr 
Beadle  ;  thence  we  were  at  congregation  again,  where  sun 
dry  others  were  graduated.  After  that  we  went  to  Trin 
ity  College,  and  were  there  at  evening  service  and  in  the 
Library,  and  waited  on  Mr.  Pilgrim,  Greek  Professor  ;  we 
spent  the  evening  at  Jesus  College  with  Mr.  Lucas  and 
Harding. 

12th.  —  This  day  we  went  first  to  Bennet  College  Library, 
where  we  saw  Abp.  Parker's  donation  to  that  College,  his 
plate,  ancient  manuscripts,  and  particularly  the  instrument 
of  his  consecration  and  the  handwriting  of  the  first  Reform 
ers,  etc.  We  dined  at  S*  John's  with  Dr.  Jenkins,  and  then 
went  to  Caius  College  to  wait  on  Mr.  Symson,  and  conversed 
there  with  sundry  gentlemen ;  saw  the  Chapel  and  library  ; 
thence  we  went  to  the  Coffee  House,  and  conversed  with  Mr. 
Baker  and  Dr.  Middleton,  etc.  We  spent  the  evening  at 
Mr.  Symson's  in  company  with  Mr.  Burroughs  and  Mr.  San 
derson,  the  Blind  Mathematical  Professor  —  a  prodigy. 

14th.  —  This  day  we  went  in  the  morning  to  C.  C.  C.  C. 
to  drink  a  dish  of  tea  with  Mr.  Mickleborough,  thence  to 
church  to  S*  Mary's,  where  we  had  a  sermon  in  Latin  by 
Dr.  Hall  on  the  text,  —  "  The  disciples  were  first  called  Chris 
tians,"  etc.  We  dined  at  Jesus  with  Mr.  Harding ;  thence 
we  went  to  Magdalen  and  Peterhouse,  and  to  wait  on  Mr. 
Marshall  at  Emanuel,  and  to  take  our  leave  of  Dr.  Laney,  Dr. 
Cross,  Mr.  Pilgrim,  and  Mr.  Lawson,  and  spent  the  evening 
with  Dr.  Dickens,  Dr.  Warren,  Mr.  Nichols,  and  Mr.  Mar 
shal],  and  thus  we  take  our  leave  of  Cambridge. 

~L5th.  —  This  day  we  took  coach  and  came  up  to  London 
in  company  with  Dr.  Bentley. 

The  journeys  to  Oxford  and  Cambridge  were  the 
longest  which  they  made  out  of  London,  after  their 
arrival  in  that  city.  It  was  no  part  of  their  plan  to 
travel  into  other  counties  of  England,  and  they  saw 
nothing  of  Scotland  or  Ireland.  Besides  the  four 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  51 

days  at  Canterbury,  the  ten  at  Oxford,  and  the  seven 
at  Cambridge,  the  whole  time  of  their  sojourn  was 
passed  in  London.  The  little  book  of  private  notes 
is  nearly  ended,  and  the  entries  now  begin  to  show 
preparations  for  the  homeward  voyage. 

June  "16th.  -<—  This  day  (being  Sunday)  we  were  in  the 
morning  at  S*  Foster's,  where  the  Bp.  of  Man  preached  on 
Mar.  xii.  32-3,  —  "  The  love  of  our  neighbor."  Afternoon  I 
was  at  S*  Austin's. 

VltJi.  —  This  day  we  waited  first  on  the  Bp.  of  London, 
then  after  dinner  took  a  walk  to  Islington  with  Mr.  Clendon, 
Berriman,  and  Champion  ;  on  our  return  we  went  to  see  the 
great  fire  that  happened  that  day,  and  spent  the  evening 
with  Mr.  Wheatly. 

18th.  —  This  day  we  first  waited  on  Dr.  Snape,  Vice- 
chancellor  of  Cambridge ;  then  on  Dr.  Knight.  We  spent 
the  afternoon  with  Mr.  Phillips  in  seeing  Sir  John  Parsons' 
Brewhouse  and  the  Tower,  and  in  company  with  Capt. 
Ruggles  and  Mr.  Hooper  at  N.  E.  Coffee  House.  N.  B.  —  I 
lodge  now  at  Mr.  Manning's  —  apothecary. 

19* A.  —  This  day  we  were  first  to  drink  a  dish  of  tea  with 
Dr.  Berriman  and  his  brother,  then  about  sundry  private 
affairs,  and  at  John's  Coffee  House  with  sundry  clergymen. 

* 
21s*.  —  This  day  we  were  first  to  wait  on  Mr.  Jennings, 

then  before  the  Society  de  Propaganda  at  S*  Martin's 
Library,  then  before  the  Bp.  of  London  with  Dr.  Berriman. 
We  spent  the  evening  with  the  good  Dean  of  Ely  and  Dr. 
Grey. 

22d.  —  ....  I  moved  lodgings  to  Mr.  Budd's,  the 
Rising  Sun,  on  Fleet  Street.  We  spent  our  evening  with 
Dr.  Bennet  after  Evening  Prayers  at  S*  Giles'. 

23<i.  —  This  day  being  Sunday  I  was  in  the  morning  at 
S*  Paul's.  Dr.  Skirret  preached  from  Matt.  vii.  21,  —  "  Not 
every  one,"  etc.  There  I  received  the  communion.  Dean 


52  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Godolphin,  Dean  Younger,  and  Sub-dean  Gosling  adminis 
tered.  Afternoon  I  heard  Mr.  Oliver  from  Rom.  xii.  2,  — 
44  Be  not  conformed,"  etc.  It  was  at  S*  Austin's.  After 
that  I  was  at  Chapter  Coffee  House  with  Mr.  Higgot  and 
Mr.  Norton.  Spent  the  evening  with  Mrs.  Humphreys  and 
another  pretty  gentlewoman. 

2Qth.  —  This  day  we  went  in  the  morning  to  wait  on 
Edmund  Bp.  of  London,  who  gave  us  his  License  certificate 
and  benediction  by  imposition  of  hands.  Then  we  waited 
on  Dr.  Lovel.  We  dined  with  Dr.  Grey,  where  were  Dr. 
Marshall  and  Mr.  Hains.  We  spent  the  evening  at  Dr. 
Bennet's;  were  at  service  there. 


.  —  This  day  being  Sunday  I  preached  at  S*  Nicholas, 
Cole  Abbey,  in  the  morning,  from  Phil.  i.  27,  —  44  Only  let 
your  conversation  be,"  etc.  We  dined  at  Dr.  Bennet's  with 
sundry  gentlemen.  Afternoon  I  preached  the  same  sermon 
at  the  Cathedral  Church  of  S'  Paul,  for  Dean  Younger,  with 
whom  I  went  home,  and  he  was  very  kind.  We  spent  the 
evening  with  Dr.  King,  master  of  the  Charter  House,  in 
company  with  the  Bishop  of  Man,  etc. 

July  4.  —  This  morning  we  were  first  surprised  with  the 
arrival  of  our  friend  Mr.  Wetmore  from  New  England.  l  We 
went  with  him  to  Westminster  ;  thence  at  Morning  Service  at 
Lincoln's  Inn,  and  waited  on  Dr.  Lupton  ;  thence  at  sundry 
places,  and  at  Evening  Service  at  S4  Foster's  with  Mr. 
Berriman. 

5th.  —  This  day  we  went  to  Dr.  Berriman's  and  Mr. 
Oliver's,  then  to  Westminster  ;  waited  on  Mr.  Sherlock, 
and  dined  with  Dr.  Lovel.  Then  came  to  Evening  Service 
at  Sl  Foster's,  and  Dr.  Cutler  and  I  stood  witnesses  for  Mr. 
Wetmore  at  the  font.  We  spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Truby's 
with  Dr.  Dawson,  Mr.  Oliver,  Newhouse,  etc. 

l  Dr.  Chandler,  in  his  Life  of  Johnson,  p.  37,  states  that  Mr.  Wetmore  ac 
companied  them  in  the  tour  "  to  Cambridge;  but  this  is  a  mistakb,  as  it  was  made 
prior  to  bis  arrival  in  England. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  53 

6th.  —  This  day  I  was  first  to  wait  on  Dr.  King,  Master 
of  the  Charter  House  ;  after  that  at  Sfc  John's,  then  at  Mrs. 
Cardel's,  then  we  were  at  Mr.  Hay's,  and  spent  the  evening 
at  Pratt's  with  Dr.  and  Mr.  Berriman. 

7th.  —  This  day  I  preached  and  assisted  in  administering 
the  Sacrament  for  Mr.  Wheatly  at  Sfc  Swithin,  and  afternoon 
for  Dr.  Berriman  at  All  Hallows  the  Great.  We  spent  the 
evening  with  Mr.  Newman. 


.  —  This  day  we  were  at  Lambeth  to  take  our  leave 
of  the  Abp.  of  Canterbury,  who  after  sundry  civilities  gave 
us  his  solemn  Apostolical  Benediction  by  imposition  of  hands. 
We  spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Manning's. 

14:th.  —  This  day  I  heard  Mr.  Barrel  (formerly  a  Papist) 
at  S*  Bottolph's,  Aldergate,  on  "  Charity."  Afternoon  I 
heard  Mr.  Vernon  at  St.  Paul's,  —  "  God  and  Mammon." 
We  spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Newman  at  the  Temple. 

18th.  —  This  day  we  were  at  the  Abbey  at  Westminster 
at  the  Bp.  of  Man's  Tryal,  and  spent  the  afternoon  with  Mr. 
Jones,  Salmon,  and  Yale. 

19£A.  —  This  day  we  were  at  service  at  Westminster 
Abbey,  then  at  the  Treasury,  took  our  leave  of  sundry 
friends,  and  spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Oliver  and  Dr. 
Warren. 

25th.  —  This  day  I  was  at  service  at  the  Royal  Chapel, 
at  S*  James's,  at  Mr.  Wetmore's  ordination,  and  received 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Bp.  of  London  ;  the  rest  of  the  day 
spent  in  taking  leave  of  our  friends. 

26th.  —  This  day  we  took  our  leave  of  London  and  came 
down  to  Gravesend,  Mr.  Manning  and  Mr.  Wetmore  with  us. 

They  sailed  down  the  river  Thames  on  the  28th, 
and  were  ashore  at  Deal,  and  afterwards  in  "  a  bad 
storm."  Being  windbound  they  had  an  opportunity 


54  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

of  landing  at  Cowes  on  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  went 
to  Newport  and  Carisbrook  Castle  —  the  latter  places 
associated  with  the  memory  of  the  unfortunate  King 
Charles  I.  "Farewell  to  England!  "  said  Johnson  as 
the  vessel  carried  them  out  of  sight  of  land.  They 
encountered  storm  after  storm  on  the  passage,  in  one 
of  which  a  man  was  washed  overboard  and  lost.  On 
the  22d  of  September  he  wrote  in  his  journal :  — 
"  This  day  finished  Father  le  Compte's  '  History  of 
China/  and  Dr.  Goodman's  '  Winter  Evening  Confes 
sions/  and  (God  be  praised)  this  day,  after  8  weeks 
from  London  and  above  6  from  the  Lizard,  we  made 
Piscataqua,  and  landed  there.  And  so  ends  my  voy 
age  for  England.  We  go  hence  for  Boston  by  land." 

He  was  now  to  be  separated  from  the  companion 
ship  of  Dr.  Cutler,  though  for  many  years  afterwards 
they  had  frequent  interviews  and  a  constant  corre 
spondence.  He  passed  a  few  days  with  Mr.  Hony- 
man  in  Rhode  Island,  and  then  proceeded  to  the 
paternal  roof  in  Guilford  from  which  he  had  been  so 
long  absent.  His  arrival  at  Stratford  in  the  begin 
ning  of  November  was  joyfully  welcomed  by  his  little 
flock;  and  Mr.  Pigot,  who  had  been  waiting  to  be 
relieved,  hastened  to  his  new  charge  in  Providence. 

Johnson  felt  the  responsibility  of  his  situation,  and 
was  alive  with  the  work  of  organizing  and  settling  the 
Church  of  England  in  Connecticut.  At  this  time  there 
was  no  house  of  public  worship  for  Episcopalians  in 
the  Colony,  but  one  had  been  commenced  in  Stratford, 
and  was  opened  for  religious  services  on  Christmas 
Day,  nearly  fourteen  months  after  his  establishment 
in  that  town.  His  predecessor  had  communicated  to 
the  Society  that  he  would  "find  it  a  most  difficult 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  55 

task  to  answer  the  expectations  of  the  towns  around 
him,  there  being  work  enough  for  Sunday  laborers  in 
the  Lord's  harvest ; "  and  his  own  letters  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  and  others,  written  after  a  cursory 
survey  of  the  field,  are  full  of  solicitude  for  the 
"  necessitous  state  "  of  the  Church.  Their  replies  are 
equally  earnest.  One  dated  February  17,  1725,  from 
the  Eev.  J.  Berriman,  so  frequently  mentioned  in  his 
private  journal,  contains  the  first  intimation  which 
Johnson  received  of  the  scheme  of  Berkeley :  — 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  received  yours  of  October  last,  and  cannot 
let  slip  the  present  opportunity  of  writing,  though  I  have 
little  time  to  write  in,  and  less  business  to  write  about. 

I  am  glad  you  continue  to  remember  me  among  your 
other  friends  in  these  parts,  though  you  are  so  far  removed 
from  us.  You  may  assure  yourself  nothing  will  ever  blot  you 
out  of  my  remembrance,  and  as  I  shall  always  find  a  peculiar 
pleasure  in  reading  your  letters,  so  I  shall  be  diligent  in 
answering  you,  if  it  will  give  you  any  satisfaction. 

It  is  with  regret  I  hear  of  the  difficulties  Dr.  Cutler  labors 
under,  and  the  hard  usage  Mr.  Checkley  has  met  with.  May 
it  please  God  to  make  it  all  turn  to  the  benefit  of  yours  and 
of  the  whole  Church  in  general,  and  I  beseech  Him  to  succeed 
your  labors,  and  to  send  more  laborers  into  your  harvest.  A 
very  pious  Dean  in  Ireland  is  quitting  his  preferment  there 
to  go  and  settle  in  the  Bermuda  Islands,  where  he  proposes 
to  erect  a  College  —  to  bring  up  the  natives  of  America  to 
do  the  office  of  Missionaries,  etc.  Several  friends  of  his  go 
with  him  upon  this  expedition. 

We  hear  of  two  Nonjuring  Bishops  (Dr.  Welton  for  one) 
who  are  gone  into  America  ;  and  it  is  said  the  Bishop  of 
London  will  send  one  or  more  of  a  different  stamp  as  an 
antidote  against  them.  God  Almighty  prevent  the  bad 
effects  of  the  one,  and  in  his  due  time  accomplish  the  other, 
and  furnish  you  with  a  plentiful  supply  for  all  your  wants. 


56  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

The  good  Bishop  of  Man  continues  to  be  persecuted  by 
those  stiff-necked  rulers  that  have  given  him  so  much  dis 
turbance.  The  Deputy-governor  lately  put  a  man  into  a 
captain's  commission  who  was  under  the  censure  of  the 
Church  on  purpose  to  affront  and  provoke  the  Bishop,  and 
throw  contempt  upon  his  authority,  pretending  the  Bishop 
has  nothing  to  do  with  military  men.  It  is  hoped  and 
expected  the  insults  he  daily  meets  with  will  occasion  some 
good  law  to  be  made  to  curb  the  exorbitant  and  almost 
independent  power  of  the  King  of  Man. 

Dr.  Waddington  is  made  Bp.  of  Chichester,  Dr.  Clavering 
of  Landaff,  Dr.  Bradshaw  of  Bristol,  etc.  My  brother  is 
married,  and  I  am  moved  to  his  lodgings  in  Bow  Lane,  and 
Mr.  Scullard  boards  with  us.  Mr.  Chas.  Wheatly  has  buried 
his  wife.  Lord  Chancellor  is  turned  out  of  office  and  fallen 
into  great  disgrace. 

I  am  your  very  affectionate  friend  and  serv't. 

Johnson  urged  the  importance  of  bishops  in  this 
country,  not  only  to  ordain  the  men  who  were  in 
clined  to  the  Episcopal  ministry,  but  to  exercise 
proper  supervision  in  ecclesiastical  matters.  In  a 
letter  written  twelve  months  after  his  arrival  at 
Stratford,  he  said  to  Dr.  Gibson,  the  Bishop  of 
London :  —  "  It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  us  to  under 
stand  that  one  of  your  Lordship's  powerful  interest 
and  influence  is  engaged  in  so  good  a  work  as  that  of 
sending  bishops  into  America,  and  that  there  is  noth 
ing  you  desire  more  or  would  be  at  greater  pains  to 
compass.  This  gives  us  the  greatest  hopes  that  by 
your  Lordship's  pious  endeavors,  under  the  bless 
ing  of  God  and  the  benign  influence  of  our  most 
gracious  King,  it  may  at  length  be  accomplished. 
And  we  humbly  hope  that  the  address  and  repre 
sentation  of  the  state  of  religion  here  which  we  have 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  57 

lately  presumed  to  offer,  may,  in  your  Lordship's 
hands,  be  of  some  service  in  this  affair.  I  pray  God 
give  it  success." 

The  position  of  Johnson  now  made  him  influential 
among  the  friends  of  the  Church  throughout  New 
England.  He  was  the  only  Episcopal  clergyman  in 
Connecticut,  and  had  strong  adversaries  around  him 
in  those  from  whose  fellowship  he  had  withdrawn. 
They  did  much  in  conformity  with  the  narrow  spirit 
of  the  age  to  thwart  his  plans,  and  drive  him  from 
the  Colony,  by  rendering  his  situation  uncomfortable 
and  embarrassing.  But  he  had  prepared  himself  for 
all  such  opposition,  and  nothing  helped  more  to 
wear  off  its  edge  and  win  for  him  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  many  who  were  at  first  suspicious  of 
the  purity  of  his  motives,  than  his  constantly  cheer 
ful  and  benevolent  temper,  and  the  frankness  and 
courtesy  with  which  he  defended  his  opinions. 

For  nearly  two  years  he  had  lived  among  his  poor 
people  and  been  content  with  such  provision  as  their 
humble  circumstances  allowed.  But  on  the  26th  of 
September,  1725,  he  married  Mrs.  Charity  Nicoll, 
widow  of  Benjamin  Nicoll,  Esq.,  and  daughter  of 
Colonel  Richard  Floyd1  of  'Brookhaven,  Long  Island. 
She  had  three  children  by  her  former  husband  —  two 
sons  and  a  daughter  —  and  no  sooner  had  the  step 
father  established  himself  in  his  own  house  than  he 

1  Writing  to  his  son  in  1757,  Johnson  gave  this  account  to  him  of  his  mother's 
ancestors: — "Floyd  is  doubtless  originally  Lloyd,  LI  being  pronounced  in  Wales, 
whence  they  came,  like  Fl.  All  I  can  learn  is  that  your  grandfather  was  born  at 
New  Castle  on  the  Delaware,  that  his  father  and  mother  came  from  Wales,  and  that 
when  he  came  and  settled  at  Long  Island  they  came  with  him,  and  lived  to  be  old. 
His  wife  was  Margaret  Woodhull,  whose  father  was  an  English  gentleman  of  a  con 
siderable  family,  cousin-german  by  his  mother  to  Lord  Careiv,  father  to  the  late 
Bishop  of  Durham,  whose  niece  was  mother  to  the  present  Earl  of  Wallgrave  or 
Wald  grave." 


58  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

undertook  to  instruct  the  sons  in  a  preliminary  course 
of  education,  and  prepare  them  for  Yale  College, 
where  they  both  graduated  in  1734.  The  father  of 
Johnson  wrote  him  a  congratulatory  letter  on  his 
happy  marriage,  and  informed  him  at  the  same  time 
that  his  mother  was  in  a  languishing  condition, 
with  little  prospect  of  recovery.  Her  death,  which 
occurred  in  the  succeeding  March,  preceded  a  sick 
ness  of  his  own  that  brought  him  nigh  to  the  grave, 
and  of  which  he  made  this  entry  in  his  private 
journal,  under  date  of  June  13,  1726  :  "  Blessed  be 
thy  goodness,  adored  be  thy  kindness,  patience,  and 
forbearance,  0  good  and  gracious  God,  who  hast 
preserved  me  from  the  danger  I  have  been  exposed 
to  in  my  late  sickness  at  Boston,  and  granted  me 
so  successful,  so  speedy  a  relief  and  recovery  from 
so  dangerous  a  distemper.  What  shall  I  render  to 
the  Lord  for  all  his  benefits?  Let  my  soul  praise 
Thee  while  I  live,  and  all  that  is  within  me  bless 
his  holy  name.  Thou  forgivest  all  my  iniquities, 
and  healest  all  my  diseases.  Thou  savest  my  life 
from  destruction,  and  crownest  me  with  loving-kind 
ness  and  tender  mercy.  May  I  never  forget  thy  ben 
efits  !  but  remember  my  recovery  from  this  sickness 
as  a  fresh  motive  to  lay  out  the  life  and  powers  which 
are  yet  lent  and  continued  to  me,  with  greater  zeal 
and  engagedness  for  God's  glory,  the  advancement 
of  his  Church,  and  the  good  of  the  souls  of  men ;  and 
may  it  be  as  a  warning  to  me  to  walk  with  more 
watchfulness  and  circumspection  all  my  days,  that  I 
may  be  ready  to  depart  whenever  my  last  summons 
shall  arrive." 

Before  the  year  had  rolled  round,  another  severe 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  59 

affliction  befell  him  in  the  decease  of  his  father, — 
"  a  man  remarkable  for  a  friendly  temper,  and  de 
lighting  much  in  hospitality  to  strangers."  Accord 
ing  to  the  son's  account,  he  was  favorably  impressed 
with  the  Church  of  England,  "  entirely  brought  off 
from  most  of  the  fanatical  and  predestination  prin 
ciples,  '.  .  .  .  and  would  have  communicated  with 
us,  if  he  had  lived."  The  bitter  and  uncharitable 
spirit  of  the  times  had  served  to  deter  him  from  this, 
and  he  was  not  so  thoroughly  persuaded  as  to  "  think 
it  necessary  to  leave  the  Dissenting  Communion." 


60  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 


CHAPTER  IV. 

POLEMICS  AND  INFIDELITY;  BIRTH  OP  A  SON;  PERSONAL  AC 
QUAINTANCE  WITH  DEAN  BERKELEY  ;  VISITS  TO  HIM  AT  NEW 
PORT,  AND  A  CONVERT  TO  HIS  VIEWS  ;  ALCIPHRON,  OR  THE 
MINUTE  PHILOSOPHER ;  RETURN  OF  BERKELEY  TO  ENGLAND, 
AND  BENEFACTIONS  TO  YALE  COLLEGE;  RELIGIOUS  CONTRO 
VERSY,  AND  PUBLICATION  OF  PAMPHLETS. 

A.  D.  1727-1736. 

THE  inquiring  mind  of  Johnson  led  him  to  seek 
the  society  of  scholars,  and  his  thirst  for  knowledge 
was  so  great  that  he  neglected  no  opportunity  of 
intellectual  improvement.  William  Burnet  was  now 
the  Governor  of  New  York,  "  a  very  bookish  man, 
and  much  of  a  scholar,"  as  the  subject  of  this  memoir 
described  him,  who  had  a  large  library,  and  whose 
taste  for  learning  might  have  come  from  his  father, 
for  he  was  the  eldest  son  of  Gilbert  Burnet,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  and  the  celebrated  historian  of  "  His 
Own  Time." 

Johnson,  in  his  frequent  visits  to  New  York,  culti 
vated  the  friendship  of  Governor  Burnet,  with  whom 
he  became  a  great  favorite.  He  was  furnished  with 
some  of  the  best  books  that  his  library  contained, 
and  in  this  way  was  drawn  into  the  thorny  thicket 
of  the  Bangorian  controversy,  which  involved  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  questions  of  ecclesiastical 
authority,  and  the  proper  province  of  the  civil  mag 
istrate.  The  Governor  was  a  zealous  champion  on 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  61 

the  side  of  Clark,  Whiston,  and  Hoadly,  and  attempted 
dexterously  to  bring  over  his  young  friend  to  his 
own  views. 

Here  is  one  of  the  letters  which  he  wrote  to 
him :  — 

NEW  YORK,  August  14,  1727. 

REVEREND  SIR,  —  It  is  so  rare  a  thing  in  this  country  to 
find  one  that  reads  books  with  care  and  impartiality,  that  you 
need  no  apology  for  borrowing,  but  you  give  me  pleasure  in 
doing  it.  I  hate  to  have  them  lie  idle  upon  a  shelf ;  but 
when  I  lend  them  to  such  readers,  I  reckon  they  bring  me  in 
good  interest. 

There  is  no  need  in  reading  a  controversy  to  be  of  one  side 
of  the  question  —  it  is  rather  better  to  be  of  neither  ;  and,  in 
points  which  are  not  capable  of  demonstration,  perhaps  those 
who  never  entirely  determine,  but  still  are  in  some  suspense, 
act  most  rationally.  Candor  and  temper  are  sufficient  bonds 
of  unity,  without  sameness  of  opinion. 

The  thing  that  always  hung  most  in  my  mind  out  of  Dr. 
Clark's  book  was,  that  there  were  but  three  possible  opinions 
upon  the  subject,  and  that  whoever  has  any  opinion  fixed, 
has  one  of  the  three,  and  that  all  other  opinions  are  mere 
self-delusion  and  mere  nothing,  however  plausibly  disguised. 
As  to  the  style  and  decency  of  writing  which  you  commend 
in  the  Doctor,  it  is  certainly  very  taking  ;  and  it  is  commonly 
the  lot  of  the  most  unpopular*to  write  so,  whereas  those  who 
are  backed  by  numbers  are  apt  to  swagger.  I  remember  my 
father  was  called  a  Socinian,  because  in  one  of  his  books  he 
commends  the  serious,  modest  way  of  controversy.  But  this 
is  no  proof  of  people's  being  right ;  and  accordingly,  I  re 
member  an  able  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  speaking 
of  a  very  rising  young  member,  said,  what  a  pity  he  had 
not  been  of  the  side  of  the  minority,  for  then  he  would  have 
had  a  complete  finishing,  but  as  he  was  on  the  winning  side, 
it  was  a  great  chance  but  he  would  be  spoiled.  So  much  a 
better  school  is  adversity  than  prosperity  in  every  stage  and 


62  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

• 
profession   of   life.     As   to   the   three  opinions,   I  take   the 

fashionable  one  to  be  Sabellianisra,  as  I  have  often  found  by 
conversation,  of  which  Socinianism  ought  to  be  a  conse 
quence,  though  seldom,  drawn,  and  therefore  not  fairly  charge 
able  ;  the  most  uncommon  one  Tritheism,  which  people  are 
oftener  driven  to  by  dispute  than  that  they  choose  it ;  and 
the  most  obvious  one  that  of  the  inequality,  which  would  be 
more  universal  if  it  did  not  seem  to  lead  to  Polytheism, 
though  not  so  much  as  Tritheism  does.  I  send  the  books, 
an*d  am,  sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

W.  BTJRNET. 
To  this  Johnson  replied  :  — 

MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  EXCELLENCY,  —  Dr.  Clark's  writ 
ings  are  so  very  agreeable  and  instructive  that  I  cannot 
presently  be  disengaged  from  them,  when  I  have  once  got 
them  under  my  eye  ;  however,  I  now  at  last  return  those  of 
them  which  I  had  last,  with  my  humble  thanks  for  them  and 
those  kind  lines  which  accompanied  them  from  your  Excel 
lency,  full  of  very  wise  and  true  observations. 

But  as  to  the  last  of  them,  relating  to  the  three  opinions  : 
if  Sabellianism  do  indeed  necessarily  include  and  infer  Socin 
ianism  ;  and  if,  at  the  same  time,  the  common  orthodoxy 
were  not  really  different  from  Sabellianism,  provided  there 
were  but  three  possible  opinions  on  this  subject,  I  should 
readily  enough  subscribe  to  that  of  the  inequality ;  for  I  can 
not  conceive  how  a  great  many  texts  of  Scripture  can  be 
fairly  accounted  for  upon  the  Socinian  hypothesis ;  and  as 
for  Tritheism,  that  is  demonstrably  and  utterly  inconsistent 
with  reason  as  well  as  Scripture.  But  that  of  the  inequal 
ity,  though  reasonable  and  intelligible  enough,  and  very  well 
accounting  for  most  texts  of  Scripture  relating  to  this  subject, 
yet  there  a.re  some  texts  which  I  wish  I  could,  but  cannot 
find  reconcilable  to  it,  without  too  great  a  violence  done  to 
them,  and  too  great  a  deviation  from  the  most  obvious  sense 
and  meaning  of  them.  It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  there  must 


OF   SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  63 

be  a  fourth  hypothesis  possible,  though  it  may  not  be  com 
prehensible  or  explicable  ;  and  yet,  so  far  as  it  is  discovered 
to  us,  it  is  intelligible,  and  because  it  is  divinely  revealed, 
must  be  credible.  But  I  shall  gladly  embrace  any  further 
light  on  this  subject. 

If  your  Excellency  removes  to  Boston,  as  the  people  there 
will  no  doubt  think  themselves  veiy  happy,  so  I  shall  be 
very  glad  in  particular  that  you  remove  no  further  from  us, 
and  that  it  will  yet  remain  practicable  for  me  to  enjoy  the 
advantages  of  that  condescending  goodness  you  have  hitherto 
expressed  towards  me.  And  therefore,  if  I  may  yet  presume, 
I  shall  be  very  much  obliged  to  your  Excellency  if  you  will 
please  to  lend  me  any  other  good  book,  and  particularly  an 
Italian  Grammar,  after  the  manner  of  Boyer  for  the  French, 
for  I  have  a  curiosity  to  look  into  the  nature  of  that  language. 
I  am, 

May  it  please  your  Excellency, 

Your  most  humble,  etc., 

S.  J. 

Thus  he  found  him  indisposed  to  adopt  conclusions 
until  he  had  examined  and  approved  the  basis  on 
which  they  rested.  The  cause  of  truth  demanded  an 
impartial  study  of  the  matters  in  dispute,  and  there 
fore  Johnson  turned  to  the  writings  of  those  who  had 
arrayed  themselves  in  opposition  to  the  principles  of 
these  men,  —  to  such  authors  as  Bull,  Pearson  and 
Waterland,  Sherlock,  Snape  and  Law,  —  and  very  soon 
he  was  more  convinced  than  ever  that  the  modus  of 
the  Trinity  was  not  to  be  accounted  for  on  any  phil 
osophical  hypothesis ;  that  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of 
our  faculties,  and  to  be  received  as  taught  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  believed  in  the  Church  for  ages  imme 
diately  succeeding  the  Apostolic.  Thus  he  rejected 
human  speculation  in  Divine  things,  and  settled  down 
in  the  conviction,  as  he  himself  states  in  his  autobi- 


64  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

ography,  —  "  That  we  must  be  content  chiefly,  if  not 
only,  both  in  nature  and  revelation,  with  the  knowl 
edge  of  facts  and  their  design  and  connections,  without 
speculating  much  further ;  that  one  great  end  of  all 
God's  discoveries,  both  in  nature  and  grace,  is  to 
mortify  our  pride  and  self-sufficiency,  to  make  us 
deeply  sensible  of  our  entire  dependence,  and  chiefly 
to  engage  us  to  live  by  faith  and  not  by  sight" 

A  club  of  free-thinkers  in  England  about  this  time 
startled  the  nation  with  their  bold  attacks  on  Chris 
tianity.  Included  in  the  members  of  this  club  were 
Anthony  Collins,  Thomas  Woolston,  and  Matthew 
Tindall,  all  of  whom,  as  if  by  concert,  openly  engaged 
in  an  effort  to  bring  discredit  upon  the  religion  of  the 
Bible,  and  weaken  the  faith  of  the  disciples  of  Christ. 
They  issued  their  publications  in  succession,  and  at 
tacked  Christianity  from  different  points,  claiming, 
among  other  things,  that  the  miracles  of  Christ  were 
susceptible  of  a  mystical  interpretation,  and  at  the 
same  time  asserting  that  they  were  never  actually 
wrought. 

These  infidel  writers  were  attended  and  followed 
by  others  in  the  same  abandoned  cause,  so  that,  as 
Johnson  says,  "  it  seemed  as  if  hell  itself  was  broke 
loose  at  once  to  undermine  and  demolish  Christianity." 
He  read  very  carefully  the  books  that  were  prepared 
in  defense  of  the  truth  and  in  confutation  of  the 
principles  of  the  free-thinkers,  and  thus  became  a 
scholar  armed  and  ready  to  do  battle  in  his  Master's 
service.  "  I  remember,"  says  Chandler  in  his  Life,1 
"  to  have  heard  him  in  conversation  give  an  account 
of  the  various  attacks  upon  revelation,  and  of  the 

1  P.  143. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  65 

defenses  which  they  occasioned,  similar  to  that  given 
by  Leland  in  his  '  View  of  the  Deistical  Writers,' ' 
and  this  too  before  that  valuable  work  was  published. 

The  loss  of  his  parents,  referred  to  in  the  previous 
chapter,  was  supplied  to  him  in  a  measure  by  the 
birth  of  a  child.  On  the  14th  day  of  October,  1727, 
he  made  an  entry  in  his  private  journal  in  these 
words,  —  "This  day  I  am  31  years  old,  and  this 
sevennight  (October  7)  it  hath  pleased  God  of  his 
goodness  to  give  me  the  great  blessing  of  a  very 
likely  son,  for  which,  and  in  my  wife's  comfortable 
deliverance,  I  adore  his  goodness. 

"  Thus  I  am  no  sooner  deprived  of  a  father  but  I 
am  provided  for  with  a  son  to  supply  the  demands  of 
our  mortal  condition  in  this  world.  My  only  hope  in 
Thee,  0  God,  who  hast  been  my  father's  God,  and 
who  art  my  God,  is,  that  Thou  wilt  be  his  God  and 
portion  in  the  land  of  the  living,  and  forever.  I  have 
dedicated  him  to  Thee  ;  sanctify  him  by  thy  grace, 
that  he  may  be  serviceable  unto  Thee  in  the  world, 
and  be  fitted  for  and  made  partaker  of  thy  glory." 

The  pleasant  letters  which  follow  touch  upon  his 
domestic  relations,  and  revive  the  recollection  of 
friendships  formed  while  he  was  sojourning  in  Lon 
don:  — 

Bow  LANE,  Sept.  25,  1727. 

REV.  Sin,  —  I  have  a  long  time  wished  and  hoped  for  a 
letter  from  you,  but  not  being  so  happy  as  to  receive  one,  I 
am  resolved  to  force  myself  into  your  acquaintance,  hoping 
the  distance  cannot  hinder  our  good  wishes  to  each  other. 
I  heard  from  Dr.  Cutler  success  attends  your  labors  in  the 
ministry.  I  pray  God  continue  health  to  you,  and  pros 
perity  to  your  endeavors.  I  cannot  but  wish  you  all 
happiness  in  the  change  of  your  condition,  and  doubt  not  a 
5 


66  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

man  of  your  zeal  and  goodness  will  meet  with  all  the  bless 
ings  a  married  estate  can  allow.  I  should  be  pleased  to 
divert  you  with  a  little  news,  but  we  have  none  fresher  than 
the  death  of  the  good  Bp.  of  Bath  and  Wells,  and  hope  to 
have  some  good  man  his  successor.  Our  new  King  seems 
everybody's  favorite,  and  his  Government  so  equitable  that 
we  flatter  ourselves  all  things  will  be  managed  to  universal 
satisfaction. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  your  affectionate  brother, 

And  very  humble  servant, 

J.    SCULLARD. 
Dr.  Waterland  is  made  a  Prebend  of  Windsor. 

Immediately  on  its  reception  Johnson  replied  to 
this  letter  as  follows :  — 

REV.  SIR,  —  I  have  received  yours  of  the  25th  of  Septem 
ber,  and  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  retaining  me  still 
in  your  remembrance,  and  for  this  kind  testimony  of  it,  for 
indeed  I  was  almost  afraid  you  had  quite  forgot  me.  But  I 
am  surprised  if  you  never  received  any  letter  from  me,  for 
I  have  written  to  you  once  and  again,  and  I  was  afraid  I 
should  never  have  the  happiness  of  receiving  one  from  you. 
But  the  distance  makes  correspondence  uncertain ;  however, 
I  shall  be  glad,  and  not  only  esteem  it  an  happiness  but  an 
honor,  to  receive  now  and  then  a  letter  from  you,  and  you 
may  depend  upon  it  that  I  shall  not  be  wanting  on  my  part. 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  congratulations  upon  my  new 
condition,  not  so  new  now  indeed,  but  that  I  have  a  son,  I 
thank  God,  as  well  as  a  wife.  I  hope  I  shall  have  occasion 
before  long  to  congratulate  you  upon  the  like  occasion,  and 
that  you  will  be  as  happy  in  such  a  state  as  you  can  wish  me, 
and  as  happy,  I  thank  heaven,  I  am  as  this  fading  world 
and  this  poor  country  will  admit  of. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  you  are  all  so  well  pleased  with  our  new 
King,  and  that  we  have  so  good  a  prospect  of  the  welfare  of 
the  Church  under  his  auspicious  reign.  I  pray  God  we  may 
feel  the  benign  influences  of  it  in  these  distant  regions.  I  am 


OF    SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  67 

glad  so  good  a  man  as  Dr.  Waterland  is  taken  notice  of,  and 
sorry  for  the  good  Bp.  of  Bath  and  Wells'  death.  I  shall  be 
glad  to  be  informed  who  succeeds,  and  what  other  altera 
tions  and  preferments  occur.  In  hopes  of  which,  my  Lumble 
and  affectionate  regards  to  Mr.  Berriman,  Wheatly,  and  all 
friends. 

I  remain  your  most  humble  brother, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

I  have  not  heard  who  is  the  Rector  since  good  Mr.  Laz- 
inby's  death. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  portions  of  Johnson's 
life  was  from  the  beginning  of  1729  to  the  autumn  of 
1731,  —  the  period  covered  by  the  residence  of  Dean 
Berkeley  at  Newport  in  Rhode  Island.  Before  that 
dignitary  came  to  America,  he  had  read  his  "Prin 
ciples  of  Human  Knowledge,"  and  had  not  only 
formed  a  high  estimate  of  the  ability  and  character 
of  the  author,  but  had  become  in  a  measure  a  convert 
to  his  metaphysical  opinions.  Desirous  of  conversing 
with  so  extraordinary  a  genius  and  so  distinguished 
a  scholar,  he  made  a  visit  to  Newport  soon  after 
his  arrival,  and  through  his  friend,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Honyman,  Missionary  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
that  place,  he  was  introduced  to  the  Dean,  and 
admitted  to  a  free  and  full  discussion  of  his  philo 
sophical  works,  and  of  the  benevolent  scheme  which 
brought  him  to  this  country.  It  was  gratifying  to 
Johnson  that  in  this  first  interview  he  was  received 
with  such  marked  kindness  and  confidence,  besides 
being  presented  with  those  of  the  Dean's  publications 
which  had  not  fallen  under  his  eye.  The  personal 
acquaintance  thus  begun  laid  the  foundation  of  a  life 
long  friendship  and  correspondence  between  two  great 
thinkers. 


68  LIFE    AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

There  are  glimpses  of  Berkeley  among  the  wits  of 
the  Court  of  Queen  Anne,  and  he  was  intimate  with 
Steele  and  Addison,  and  a  companion  of  Swift  and 
Pope.  He  had  been  Senior  Fellow  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  in  official  employment  as  Lecturer  in  Divinity, 
and  preacher  for  the  University,  but  resigned  his 
Fellowship  in  1724  on  being  preferred  to  the  Deanery 
of  Derry,  —  an  important  living  in  the  Irish  Church, 
with  an  annual  income  of  about  eleven  hundred 
pounds.  A  romance  connected  with  Dean  Swift 
caused  him  to  be  remembered  in  the  will  of  a  lady 
of  Dutch  descent  (Miss  Vanhomrigh),1  but  as  he  was 
an  "  absolute  philosopher  in  regard  to  money,  titles, 
and  power,"  the  fortune  which  came  to  him  so  unex 
pectedly  appears  to  have  only  ripened  his  conception 
of  the  plan  of  erecting  a  college  at  Bermuda  for 
better  supplying  the  plantations  with  clergymen,  and 
converting  the  savage  Americans  to  Christianity. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  he  published  a  tract  in 
defense  of  the  enterprise.  It  had  taken  such  shape 
in  his  mind,  that  he  pleaded  for  it  with  wonderful 
power,  and  was  resolved  to  dedicate  his  life  and 
fortune  and  energies  to  its  prosecution.  An  extract 
from  the  humorous  letter  of  Dean  Swift  to  Carteret, 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  dated  September  3,  1724, 
may  furnish  the  best  account  of  his  enthusiasm  :  — 

For  three  years  past  he  has  been  struck  with  a  notion  of 
founding  a  University  at  Bermudas  by  a  charter  from  the 
Crown.  He  has  seduced  several  of  the  hopefullest  young 
clergymen  and  others  here,  many  of  them  well  provided  for, 
and  all  in  the  fairest  way  of  preferment ;  but  in  England  his 
conquests  are  greater,  and  I  doubt  will  spread  very  far  this 

1  See  Eraser's  Lift  and  Letterg  of  Berkeley,  Oxford,  1871,  ch.  iv. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  69 

winter.  He  showed  me  a  little  Tract  which  he  designs  to 
publish,  and  there  your  Excellency  will  see  his  whole  scheme 
of  a  life  academico-philosophical  (I  shall  make  you  remember 
what  you  were)  of  a  college  founded  for  Indian  scholars  and 
missionaries,  where  he  most  exorbitantly  proposes  a  whole 
hundred  pounds  a  year  for  himself,  forty  pounds  for  a  Fel 
low,  and  ten  for  a  Student.  His  heart  will  break  if  his 
Deanery  be  not  taken  from  him  and  left  to  your  Excellency's 
disposal.  I  discouraged  him  by  the  coldness  of  courts  and 
ministers  who  will  interpret  all  this  as  impossible  and  a  vision  ; 
but  nothing  will  do.  And,  therefore,  I  humbly  entreat  your 
Excellency  either  to  use  such  persuasions  as  will  keep  one  of 
the  first  men  in  the  kingdom  for  learning  and  virtue  quiet 
at  home,  or  assist  him  by  your  credit  to  compass  his  romantic 
design.1 

No  discouragements  checked  the  efforts  of  Berke 
ley.  By  his  persuasive  eloquence  he  converted 
ridiculers  into  friends  and  supporters,  and  obtained 
towards  the  furtherance  of  his  object  private  sub 
scriptions  of  more  than  five  thousand  pounds.  He 
approached  the  throne  for  a  charter,  which  was 
finally  granted,  and  then  his  influence  at  Court 
secured  the  promise  of  an  endowment  of  £20,000  — 
a  fraction  of  the  value  of  certain  lands  which  the 
French,  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713,  had  ceded 
to  the  British  Crown,  and  the  proceeds  of  which,  to 
the  amount  of  £80,000,  the  good  Queen  Anne  had 
designed  as  a  fund  for  the  support  of  four  bishops  in 
America.  Her  death,  the  next  year,  prevented  the 
execution  of  her  charitable  design,  and  Berkeley  felt 
that  he  had  a  moral  claim  upon  it  for  his  own  kindred 
scheme. 

Preparations   for   his  voyage   across   the  Atlantic 

1   Works>  vol.  xvi.  p.  469. 


70  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

were  at  last  completed,  and  a  business  letter  to  his 
friend,  Thomas  Prior,  dated  Gravesend,  September  5, 
1728,  opens  with  a  paragraph  which  has  fixed  his 
torically  several  matters,  —  u  To-morrow,  with  God's 
blessing,  I  set  sail  for  Rhode  Island  with  my  wife  and 
a  friend  of  hers,  my  Lady  Handcock's  daughter,  who 
bears  us  company.  I  am  married  since  I  saw  you 
to  Miss  Forster,  daughter  of  the  late  Chief  Justice,1 
whose  humor  and  turn  of  mind  pleases  me  beyond 
anything  that  I  know  in  her  whole  sex.  Mr.  James, 
Mr.  Dalton,  and  Mr.  Smibert  go  with  us  on  this 
voyage.  We  are  now  altogether  at  Gravesend,  and 
are  engaged  in  one  view." 

Berkeley  was  in  middle  life  when  he  landed  at 
Newport  on  the  23d  of  January,  nearly  five  months 
after  sailing  from  Gravesend,  and  "  was  ushered  into 
the  town  with  a  great  number  of  gentlemen,  to  whom 
he  behaved  himself  after  a  very  complaisant  manner/' 
Here  he  rested  to  think  over,  under  new  circum 
stances,  the  romantic  enterprise  which  had  absorbed 
his  energies  for  seven  long  years,  and  purchasing  a 
tract  of  land  in  a  sequestered  spot,  he  built  a  com 
modious  house,  which,  in  loyal  remembrance  of  the 
English  palace,  he  named  Whitehall,  and  waited  the 
tardy  movements  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  the  prime 
minister,  to  send  him  the  funds  which  had  been 
promised  by  the  Government. 

It  was  in  this  retreat  that  he  continued  his  philo 
sophical  investigations,  and  received  the  successive 
visits  of  Johnson.  The  date  of  the  first  personal  in 
terview  between  them  has  not  been  discovered,  but 

1  John  Forster,  also  Recorder  of  Dublin,  and  Speaker  of  the  Irish  House  of  Com 
mons.     The  marriage  took  place  August  1,  1728. 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  71 

as  early  as  June  25,  1729,  Berkeley  wrote  to  him  at 
much  length,  in  answer  to  objections  or  inquiries 
which  he  had  been  moved  to  make  in  reference  to 
his  Philosophy.  Judging  from  its  tenor  it  is  thought 
to  have  been  his  first  letter  to  Johnson.  He  began 
thus  :  — 

REV.  SIR,  —  The  ingenious  letter  you  favored  me  with 
found  me  very  much  indisposed  with  a  gathering  or  impost- 
hum  ation  in  my  head  which  confined  me  several  weeks,  and 
is  now,  I  thank  God,  relieved.  The  objections  of  a  candid 
thinking  man  to  what  I  have  written  will  always  be  welcome, 
and  I  shall  not  fail  to  give  all  the  satisfaction  I  am  able,  not 
without  hopes  either  of  convincing  or  being  convinced.  It  is 
a  common  fault  for  men  to  hate  opposition,  and  be  too  much 
wedded  to  their  own  opinions.  I  am  so  sensible  of  this  in 
others  that  I  could  not  pardon  it  to  myself,  if  I  considered 
mine  any  further  than  they  seem  to  me  to  be  true,  which  I 
shall  the  better  be  able  to  judge  of  when  they  have  passed 
the  scrutiny  of  persons  so  well  qualified  to  examine  them  as 
you  and  your  friends  appear  to  be,  to  whom  my  illness  must 
be  an  apology  for  not  sending  this  answer  sooner. 

He  proceeded  briefly  to  explain  or  defend  under 
eleven  heads  the  philosophic  ideas  which  he  had 
published,  and  then  closed  his  letter  with  words 
which  show  his  high  respect  for  the  intellectual  force 
and  clearness  of  Johnson :  — 

And  now,  Sir,  I  submit  these  hints  (which  I  have  hastily 
thrown  together  as  soon  as  my  illness  gave  me  leave)  to  your 
own  maturer  thoughts,  which  after  all  you  will  find  the  best 
instructors.  What  you  have  seen  of  mine  was  published 
when  I  was  very  young,  and  without  doubt  hath  many 
defects.  For  though  the  notions  should  be  true  (as  I  verily 
think  they  are),  yet  it  is  difficult  to  express  them  clearly 
and  consistently,  language  being  framed  to  common  use  and 


72  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

received  prejudices.  I  do  not  therefore  pretend  that  my 
books  can  teach  truth.  All  I  hope  for  is  that  they  may  be 
an  occasion  to  inquisitive  men  of  discovering  truth  by  consult 
ing  their  own  minds  and  looking  into  their  own  thoughts. 
As  to  the  Second  part  of  my  treatise  concerning  the  principles 
of  Human  Knowledge,  the  fact  is  that  I  had  made  a  con 
siderable  progress  in  it,  but  the  manuscript  was  lost  about 
fourteen  years  ago  during  my  travels  in  Italy  ;  and  I  never 
had  leisure  since  •  to  do  so  disagreeable  a  thing  as  writing 
twice  on  the  same  subject. 

Objections  passing  through  your  hands  have  their  full 
force  and  clearness.  I  like  them  the  better.  This  inter 
course  with  a  man  of  parts  and  a  philosophic  genius  is  very 
agreeable.  I  sincerely  wish  we  wrere  nearer  neighbors.1  In 
the  mean  time  whenever  either  you  or  your  friends  favor  me 
with  your  thoughts,  you  may  be  sure  of  a  punctual  corre 
spondence  on  my  part.  Before  I  have  done  I  will  venture  to 
recommend  three  points  :  1.  To  consider  well  the  answers  I 
have  already  given  in  my  books  to  several  objections.  2.  To 
consider  whether  any  new  objection  that  shall  occur  doth  not 
suppose  the  doctrine  of  abstract  general  ideas.  3.  Whether 
the  difficulties  proposed  in  objection  to  my  scheme  can  be 
solved  by  the  contrary,  for  if  they  cannot,  it  is  plain  they 
can  be  no  objection  to  mine. 

I  know  not  whether  you  have  got  my  treatise  concerning 
the  principles  of  Human  Knowledge.  I  intend  to  send  it 
with  my  tract  De  Motu.  If  you  know  of  a  safe  hand  favor 
me  with  a  line,  and  I  will  make  use  of  that  opportunity  to 
send  them.  My  humble  service  to  your  friends,  to  whom  I 
understand  myself  indebted  for  some  part  of  your  letter. 
I  am,  your  very  faithful,  humble  serv't, 

GEOR.  BERKELEY. 

The  correspondence  thus  begun  was  continued,  and 
the  following  letter,  written  after  Berkeley  was  well 
settled  in  his  own  house,  indicates  that  the  two  had 

1  The  distance  from  Stratford  to  Newport  is  about  120  miles. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  73 

been  brought  face  to  face  in  the  discussion  of  great 
metaphysical  questions,  and  that  further  conversation 
was  needed  to  "  set  several  things  in  a  fuller  and 
clearer  light :  "  — 

REV.  SIK,  —  Yours  of  Feb.  5th  came  not  to  my  hands 
before  yesterday  ;  and  this  afternoon  being  informed  that  a 
sloop  is  ready  to  sail  towards  your  town,  I  would  not  let 
slip  the  opportunity  of  returning  you  an  answer,  though 
wrote  in  a  hurry. 

1.  I  have  no  objection  against  calling  the  ideas  in  the  mind 
of  God,  archetypes  of  ours.    But  I  object  against  those  arche 
types  by  philosophers  supposed  to  be  real   things,  and   to 
have  an  absolute  rational  existence  distinct  from  their  being 
perceived  by  any  mind  whatsoever,  it  being  the  opinion  of 
all  materialists  that  an  ideal  existence  in  the  divine  mind  is 
one  thing,  and  the  real  existence  of  material  things  another. 

2.  As  to  space,  I  have  no  notion  of  any  but  that  which 
is  relative.     I  know  some  late  philosophers  have  attributed 
extension  to  God,  particularly  mathematicians  ;  one  of  whom, 
in  a  treatise  de  Spatio  reali,  pretends  to  find  out  fifteen  of 
the   incommunicable   attributes   of   God   in   space.     But   it 
seems  to  me  that,  they  being  all  negative,  he  might  as  well 
have  found  them  in  nothing ;  and  that  it  would  have  been 
as  justly  inferred  from  space  being  impassive,  increated,  in 
divisible,  etc.,  that  it  was  nothing,  as  that  it  was  God. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  supposeth  an  absolute  space  different 
from  relative,  and  consequent  thereto,  absolute  motion  dif 
ferent  from  relative  motion ;  and  with  all  other  mathema 
ticians,  he  supposeth  the  infinite  divisibility  of  the  finite 
parts  of  this  absolute  space ;  he  also  supposeth  material 
bodies  to  drift  therein.  Now,  though  I  do  acknowledge  Sir 
Isaac  to  have  been  an  extraordinary  man,  and  most  profound 
mathematician,  yet  I  cannot  agree  with  him  in  these  particu 
lars.  I  make  no  scruple  to  use  the  word  space,  as  well  as  all 
other  words  in  common  use,  but  I  do  not  mean  thereby  a 
distinct  absolute  being.  For  my  meaning  I  refer  you  to  what 
I  have  published. 


74  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

By  the  TO  vvi  I  suppose  to  be  implied  that  all  things  past  and 
to  come  are  actually  present  to  the  mind  of  God,  and  that 
there  is  in  Him  no  change,  variation,  or  succession.  A  suc 
cession  of  ideas  I  take  to  constitute  time,  and  not  to  be  only 
the  sensible  measure  thereof,  as  Mr.  Locke  and  others  think. 
But  in  these  matters  every  man  is  to  think  for  himself,  and 
speak  as  he  finds.  One  of  my  earliest  inquiries  was  about 
time,  which  led  me  into  several  paradoxes  that  I  did  not 
think  fit  or  necessary  to  publish,  particularly  into  the  notion 
that  the  resurrection  follows  next  moment  to  death.  We 
are  confounded  and  perplexed  about  time.  (1.)  Supposing 
a  succession  in  God.  (2.)  Conceiving  that  we  have  an 
abstract  idea  of  time.  (3.)  Supposing  that  the  time  in  one 
mind  is  to  be  measured' by  the  succession  of  ideas  in  another. 
(4.)  Not  considering  the  true  use  and  end  of  words,  which 
as  often  terminate  in  the  will  as  the  understanding,  being 
employed  rather  to  excite,  influence,  and  direct  action  than 
to  produce  clear  and  distinct  ideas. 

3.  That  the  soul  of  man  is  passive  as  well  as  active  I 
make  no  doubt.  Abstract  general  ideas  was  a  notion  that 
Mr.  Locke  held  in  common  with  the  Schoolmen,  and  I  think 
all  other  philosophers ;  it  runs  through  his  whole  book  of 
Human  Understanding.  He  holds  an  abstract  idea  of  exist 
ence  exclusive  of  perceiving  and  being  perceived.  I  cannot 
find  I  have  any  such  idea,  and  this  is  my  reason  against  it. 
Descartes  proceeds  upon  other  principles.  One  square  foot 
of  snow  is  as  white  as  one  thousand  yards ;  one  single  per 
ception  is  as  truly  a  perception  as  one  hundred.  Now  any 
degree  of  perception  being  sufficient  to  existence,  it  will  not 
follow  that  we  should  say  one  existed  more  at  one  time  than 
another,  any  more  than  we  should  say  one  thousand  yards  of 
snow  are  whiter  than  one  yard.  But  after  all,  this  comes  to 
a  verbal  dispute.  I  think  it  might  prevent  a  good  deal  of 
obscurity  and  dispute  to  examine  well  what  I  have  said  about 
abstraction,  and  about  the  true  use  of  sense  and  significancy 
of  words,  in  several  parts  of  these  things  that  I  have  pub 
lished,  though  much  remains  to  be  said  on  that  subject. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  75 

You  say  you  agree  with  me  that  there  is  nothing  within 
your  mind  but  God  and  other  spirits,  with  the  attributes 
or  properties  belonging  to  them,  and  the  ideas  contained 
in  them.  This  is  a  principle  or  main  point  from  which,  and 
from  what  I  had  laid  down  about  abstract  ideas,  much  may 
be  deduced.  But  if  in  every  inference  we  should  not  agree, 
so  long  as  the  main  points  are  settled  and  well  understood, 
I  should  be  less  solicitous  about  particular  conjectures.  I 
could  wish  that  all  the  things  I  have  published  on  these 
philosophical  subjects  were  read  in  the  order  wherein  I  pub 
lished  them,  once  to  take  the  design  and  connection  of  them, 
and  a  second  time  with  a  critical  eye,  adding  your  own 
thought  and  observation  upon  every  part  as  you  went  along. 
I  send  you  herewith  ten  bound  books  and  one  unbound. 
You  will  take  yourself  what  you  have  not  already.  You 
will  give  the  principles,  the  theory,  the  dialogue,  one  of  each, 
with  my  service  to  the  gentleman  who  is  Fellow  of  New 
Haven  College,  whose  compliments  you  brought  to  me. 
What  remains  you  will  give  as  you  please. 

If  at  any  time  your  affairs  should  draw  you  into  these 
parts,  you  shall  be  very  welcome  to  pass  as  many  days  as 
you  can  spend  at  my  house.  Four  or  five  days'  conversation 
would  set  several  things  in  a  fuller  and  clearer  light  than 
writing  could  do  in  as  many  months.  In  the  mean  time  I 
shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  you  or  your  friends  whenever  you 
please  to  favor,  Rev.  Sir, 

Your  very  humble  serv't, 

GEOE.  BEEKELEY. 

Pray  let  me  know  whether  they  would  admit  the  writings 
of  Hooker  and  Chillingworth  into  the  library  of  the  College 
in  New  Haven. 

RHODE  ISLAND,  March  24,  1729-30. 

Johnson  was  at  Newport  and  preached  November  1, 
1730,  and  he  may  have  taken  an  earlier  opportunity 
for  the  "  four  or  five  days'  conversation."  Whenever 


76  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

the  interview  was  held,  other  subjects  besides  phil 
osophy  must  have  entered  into  their  discussions.  For 
Berkeley  had  already  begun  to  realize  the  painful  un 
certainty  which  hung  over  his  prospects,  and  to  feel 
that  the  crisis  of  the  Bermuda  College  was  approach 
ing.  The  money  promised  by  the  Government  had 
not  been  sent,  and  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Prior  on  the 
7th  of  May,  1730,  manifesting  much  solicitude  about 
the  Ministerial  delays,  and  intimating  that  he  had  no 
intention  of  continuing  in  these  parts,  if  the  grant 
of  £20,000  was  in  the  end  to  be  positively  refused. 
At  one  time  he  entertained  the  thought  of  applying 
for  permission  to  change  the  original  plan  and  trans 
fer  the  College  to  Rhode  Island,  where  he  had  ex 
pended  largely  for  lands  and  buildings,  and  where  the 
chief  objections  raised  against  placing  it  in  Bermuda 
would  be  obviated.  But  he  quickly  relinquished  this 
idea,  and  at  length  his  hopes  were  entirely  crushed 
when  the  conclusive  answer  came  from  Walpole, 
"  advising  him  by  all  means  to  return  home  to  Eu 
rope,  and  give  up  his  present  expectations."  He 
bore  his  great  disappointment  like  a  philosopher,  and 
a  good  picture  of  his  feelings  is  given  in  the  work  l 
which  he  wrote  "  in  this  distant  retreat,  far  beyond 
the  verge  of  that  great  whirlpool  of  business,  faction, 
and  pleasure,  which  is  called  the  world :  "  — 

I  flattered  myself,  Theages,  that  before  this  time  I  might 
have  been  able  to  have  sent  you  an  agreeable  account  of  the 
success  of  the  affair  which  brought  me  into  this  remote  corner 
of  the  country.  But  instead  of  this,  I  should  now  give  you 
the  detail  of  its  miscarriage,  if  I  did  not  rather  choose  to 
entertain  you  with  some  amusing  incidents  which  have 

1  Alciphron ;  or,  the  Minute  Philosopher,  in  Seven  Dialogues.    Two  vols.     Printed 
in  London,  1732.     A  second  edition  appeared  in  the  same  year. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  77 

helped  to  make  me  easy  under  a  circumstance  I  could  neither 
obviate  nor  foresee.  Events  are  not  in  our  power  ;  but  it 
always  is,  to  make  a  good  use  even  of  the  very  worst.  And 
I  must  needs  own,  the  course  and  event  of  this  affair  gave 
opportunity  for  reflections  that  make  me  some  amends  for 
a  great  loss  of  time,  pains,  and  expense.  A  life  of  action, 
which  takes  its  issue  from  the  counsels,  passions,  and  views 
of  other  men,  if  it  doth  not  draw  a  man  to  imitate,  will  at 
least  teach  him  to  observe.  And  a  mind  at  liberty  to  reflect 
on  its  own  observations,  if  it  produce  nothing  useful  to  the 
world,  seldom  fails  of  entertainment  to  itself.1 

It  is  due  to  Johnson  that  the  self-sacrificing  and 
missionary  enterprise  of  Berkeley  was  not  wholly  a 
failure,  or  rather  that  his  name  was  held  in  grateful 
remembrance  in  America  after  his  return  to  England. 
When  it  had  been  decided  to  break  up  and  leave 
Whitehall  and  the  country,  he  paid  him  a  final  visit 
and  received  from  him  many  valuable  books,  and  to 
use  his  own  words,  they  "  parted  very  affectionately." 
Nor  was  this  all.  Both  were  deeply  interested  in  the 
cause  of  learning,  and  Johnson  took  the  liberty  of 
commending  to  his  friendly  notice  the  institution 
where  he  had  himself  been  educated,  notwithstand 
ing  the  continued  hostility  of  the  authorities  to  the 
Church  of  England.  He  was  in  Khode  Island,  July, 
1731,  and  on  the  4th  day  of  that  month,  according 
to  his  own  note,  preached  "  before  the  Dean,"  a  ser 
mon  from  the  text,  — "  For  in  Christ  Jesus  neither 
circumcision  availeth  anything,  nor  uncircumcision, 
but  a  new  creature."  This  was  undoubtedly  his  final 
visit  when  they  "  agreed  "  together  about  the  books, 
and  discussed  the  matters  of  the  College ;  but  letters 
passed  between  them  afterwards,  and  Berkeley,  on  the 

i  P.  2,  vol.  i.  2d  ed. 


78  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

eve  of  his  departure,  wrote  his  great  American  friend 
as  follows  :  — 

REV.  SIR,  —  I  am  now  upon  the  point  of  setting  out  for 
Boston  in  order  to  embark  for  England.  But  the  hurry  I 
am  in  could  not  excuse  my  neglecting  to  acknowledge  the 
favor  of  your  letter.  In  answer  to  the  obliging  things  in 
it,  I  can  only  say  I  wish  I  might  deserve  them. 

My  endeavors  shall  not  be  wanting,  some  way  or  other,  to 
be  useful ;  and  I  should  be  very  glad  to  be  so  in  particular 
to  the  College  at  New  Haven,  and  the  more  as  you  were 
once  a  member  of  it,  and  have  still  an  influence  there.  Pray 
return  my  service  to  those  gentlemen  who  sent  their  com 
pliments  by  you. 

I  have  left  a  box  of  books  with  Mr.  Kay,  to  be  given  away 
by  you,  —  the  small  English  books  where  they  may  be  most 
serviceable  among  the  people,  the  others  as  we  agreed  to 
gether.  The  Greek  and  Latin  books  I  would  have  given  to 
such  lads  as  you  think  will  make  the  best  use  of  them  in  the 
College,  or  to  the  school  at  New  Haven. 

I  pray  God  to  bless  you  and  your  endeavors  to  promote 
religion  and  learning  in  this  uncultivated  part  of  the  world, 
and  desire  you  to  accept  mine  and  my  wife's  best  wishes  and 
services,  being  very  truly,  Rev.  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

GEOR.  BERKELEY. 

RHODE  ISLAND,  Sept.  7,  1731. 

Berkeley's  gifts  to  Yale  College  were  through  the 
agency  of  Johnson.  To  him  was  transmitted  from  Eng 
land  the  instrument  by  which  he  conveyed  to  the  cor 
poration  his  farm  at  Whitehall  of  ninety-six  acres,  — 
the  annual  proceeds  to  be  used  for  the  purpose  of 
encouraging  Greek  and  Latin  scholarship :  and  he 
so  interested  some  of  his  Bermuda  subscribers  in  the 
American  College,  that  with  their  assistance  he  was 
enabled  to  send  over  in  1733  a  donation  to  the  library 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  79 

of  nearly  one  thousand  volumes,  valued  at  about 
.£500  :  "  The  finest  collection  of  books"  according  to 
President  Clap,  "  which  had  then  ever  been  brought 
to  America." 

The  letter  to  Johnson  which  accompanied  "  the  in 
strument  of  conveyance,"  has  not  been  published,  or 
even  referred  to  in  any  sketch  of  his  life  and  bene 
factions  ;  and  that  to  Rector  Williams  is  not  to  be 
found  among  the  archives  of  Yale  College.  A  little 
doubt  has  been  raised  about  Johnson's  sole  agency  in 
the  matter,  and  the  motive  which  actuated  him  and 
the  Dean  ; l  but  this  letter  removes  it,  and  at  the  same 
time  shows  the  singleness  of  the  donor's  intentions 
and  the  forecast  of  his  mind  as  to  a  course  after 
graduation.  He  appears  to  have  been  the  first  to 
suggest  its  advantages  :  — 

LONDON,  July  25,  1732. 

REV.  SIR,  —  Some  part  of  the  benefactions  to  the  College 
of  Bermuda,  which  I  could  not  return,  the  benefactors  being 
deceased,  joined  with  the  assistance  of  some  living  friends, 

1  President  Stiles,  in  his  Diary,  says  Johnson  "  persuaded  the  Dean  to  believe  that 
Yale  College  would  soon  become  Episcopal,  and  that  they  had  received  his  immaterial 
philosophy.  This  or  some  other  motive  influenced  the  Dean  to  make  a  donation  of 
his  Rhode  Island  farm,  ninety-six  acres,  with  a  library  of  about  a  thousand  vol 
umes,  to  Yale  College,  in  1733.  This  donation  was  certainly  procured  very  much 
through  the  instrumentality  of  Rev.  Dr.  Jared  Eliot  and  Rev.  Dr.  Johnson." 

The  latter  writing  to  Abp.  Seeker,  March,  1759,  and  referring  to  efforts  of  the  Con 
gregational  ministers  to  depreciate  the  work  of  the  missionaries,  said  :  "I  main 
tained  all  along  a  very  friendly  correspondence  with  the  chief  men  among  them, 
and  endeavored  to  do  them  all  the  good  offices  I  could,  and  in  particular  I  procured  a 
noble  donation  from  Bishop  Berkeley  for  their  College  in  land  and  books  to  the  value 
of  nigh  £2,000  sterling.  But  behold  the  gratitude  of  these  men.  At  the  same  time 
that  I  was  doing  them  these  good  offices,  they  were  contriving  and  did  send  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  a  long  letter,  full  of  gross  falsehoods  and  misrepresentations,  of 
complaint  against  us  with  a  view  to  get  all  the  church  people  deprived  of  their  min 
isters,  and  then  of  their  subsistence,  which  he  laid  before  the  Society,  and  which  I  be 
lieve  your  Grace  may  find  among  papers  of  the  year  1735.  In  reply  to  which  the 
Society  gave  them  leave  to  produce  evidence  to  make  good  their  complaints  against 
us,  which  they  endeavored  to  do,  but  could  make  nothing  of  it." 


80  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

has  enabled  me  without  any  great  loss  to  myself,  to  dispose 
of  my  farm  in  Rhode  Island  in  favor  of  the  College  in  Con 
necticut.  It  is  my  opinion  that  as  human  learning  and  the 
improvements  of  Reason  are  of  no  small  use  in  Religion,  so 
it  would  very  much  forward  those  ends,  if  some  of  your  stu 
dents  were  enabled  to  subsist  longer  at  their  studies,  and  if 
by  a  public  tryal  and  premium  an  Emulation  were  inspired 
into  all.  This  method  of  encouragement  hath  been  found 
useful  in  other  learned  societies,  and  I  think  it  cannot  fail 
of  being  so  in  one  where  a  person  so  well  qualified  as  yourself 
has  such  influence,  and  will  bear  a  share  in  the  elections. 
I  have  been  a  long  time  indisposed  with  a  great  disorder  in 
my  head  ;  this  makes  any  application  hurtful  to  me,  which 
must  excuse  my  not  writing  a  longer  letter  on  this  occasion. 
The  letter  you  sent  by  Mr.  Beach1  I  received  and  did 
him  all  the  service  I  could  with  the  Bishop  of  London  and 
the  Society.  He  promised  to  call  on  me  before  his  return, 
but  have  not  heard  of  him,  so  am  obliged  to  recommend 
this  pacquet  to  Mr.  Newman's  care.  It  contains  the  in 
strument  of  conveyance  2  in  form  of  law,  together  with  a  let- 

1  Rev.  John  Beach  of  Newtown. 

a  The  farm  contained  ninety-six  acres  more  or  less,  and  was  worth  at  the  time, 
one  hundred  pounds  sterling.  It  was  leased  March  25th,  1763,  to  John  Whiting  for 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  years.  The  President  and  Fellows  of  Yale  College 
recited  in  the  agreement,  that  they  had  "  found  upon  the  experience  of  thirty  years 
past  that  by  leasing  said  farm  on  short  leases,  the  housing  and  fences  have  greatly 
gone  to  decay,  the  wood  destroyed,  and  the  farm  not  improved  to  so  good  an  advan 
tage  as  land  cultivated  by  freeholders,  which  is  likely  to  be  the  case  for  some  cen 
turies  while  land  is  so  plenty  in  this  country  ;  upon  mature  consideration  whereof 
and  the  advice  of  Rev.  George  Berkeley,  the  son  of  the  generous  donor,  and  sundry 
other  gentlemen  learned  in  the  law,  and  skilled  in  the  best  economy,"  the  annual 
rent,  from  March  25th,  1763,  to  March  25th,  1769,  was  fixed  at  72  ounces  of  silver 
money,  besides  requiring  about  300  rods  of  stone  wall  to  be  made  upon  the  prem 
ises  ;  from  1769  to  1810,  144  ounces  of  silver  money  ;  and  from  1810,  to  the  termi 
nation  of  the  lease  240  bushels  of  good  merchantable  wheat  or  its  value. 

Whiting  assigned  his  lease  to  other  parties,  and  subsequently  a  new  one  was  given 
for  the  remainder  of  the  period,  fixing  the  annual  rent  from  1769  to  1789  at  100 
ounces  of  silver  money  ;  from  1789  to  1810  at  126  ounces  of  silver  money  ;  and  after 
1810  at  210  bushels  of  wheat. 

A  party  wishing  to  buy  the  lease,  wrote  March  2d,  1799,  that  the  rent  was  too 
great  after  1810  ;  and  the  corporation  therefore  voted  the  next  year  that  the  tenant 
•hould  pay  $130  annually  for  ten  years,  and  after  that  $140. 

The  latest  lease  was  executed  May  18th,  1801,  by  Timothy  Dwight,  President  of 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  81 

ter  for  Mr.  President  Williams,  which  you  will  deliver  to 
him.  I  shall  make  it  my  endeavor  to  procure  a  benefaction 
of  books  for  the  College  library,  and  am  not  without  hopes 
of  success.  There  hath  of  late  been  published  here  a  treatise 
against  those  who  are  called  Free  Thinkers,  which  I  intended 
to  have  sent  fco  you  and  some  other  friends  in  those  parts,  but 
on  second  thoughts  suspect  it  might  do  mischief  to  have  it 
known  in  that  part  of  the  world  what  pernicious  opinions 
are  boldly  espoused  here  at  home.  My  little  family,  I  thank 
God,  are  well.  My  best  wishes  attend  you  and  yours. 
My  wife  joins  her  services  with  mine.  I  shall  be  glad  to 
hear  from  you  by  the  first  opportunity  after  this  hath  come 
to  your  hands.  Direct  your  letter  to  Lord  Percival,  at  his 
house  in  Pall-Mall,  London,  and  it  will  be  sure  to  find  me 
wherever  I  am.  On  all  occasions  I  shall  be  glad  to  show 
that  I  am  very  truly,  Rev.  Sir, 

Your  faithful  humble  serv4., 

GEOK.  BEBKELEY. 

Johnson,  in  his  autobiography,  mentions  that  "  the 
Trustees,  though  they  made  an  appearance  of  much 
thankfulness,  were  almost  afraid  to  accept  the  noble 
donation,"  —  suspecting  a  proselytizing  design,  and 
remembering  the  effect  in  previous  years  of  Anglican 
divinity  upon  the  minds  of  some  of  their  leading 
scholars.  But  wiser  counsels  prevailed,  the  books 
and  lands  were  received,  and  Berkeley  maintained  a 
friendly  correspondence  with  the  authorities  of  the 
College  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

His  well-known  philosophical  work,  published  the 
year  after  his  return  to  England,  attracted  the  atten 
tion  of  learned  men,  and  while  many  rejected  his 

Yale  College,  in  favor  of  Paul  Wightman,  his  heirs  and  assigns  forever,  fixing  the  rent 
at  $140  per  annum  from  March  25th,  1810,  to  March  25th,  2761.  See  Records  of  T.  C. 
The  Farm  is  now  estimated  to  be  worth   $100,000,  and  if  it  had  been  kept  in 
possession  of  the  College,  Berkeley's  gift  would  have  been  a  vastly  greater  stimulus 
to  classical  scholarship. 
6 


82  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

speculative  spirit,  none  denied  the  greatness  of  his 
intellect  and  the  purity  of  his  Christian  character. 
It  was  some  compensation  for  the  disappointment  of 
his  cherished  hopes  that  so  far  from  being  overlooked 
at  Court,  he  was  promoted  to  the  See  of  Cloyne,  — 
a  secluded  bishopric  in  the  southern  part  of  his  na 
tive  Ireland,  to  which  he  was  consecrated  on  Sunday, 
the  19th  of  May,  1734.  In  this  retired  spot,  where 
he  was  almost  as  much  out  of  the  world  as  he  had 
been  at  Newport,  he  found  leisure  to  pursue  his  fa 
vorite  studies,  and  to  keep  up  by  letter  a  tolerably 
frequent  intercourse  with  his  congenial  friend  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic. 

Johnson  became  a  thorough  convert  to  his  system, 
and  owned  his  obligations  to  Berkeley  in  removing 
many  difficulties  that  had  hitherto  attended  his  phil 
osophical  and  theological  inquiries.  As  he  himself 
says  in  his  autobiography,  "  he  found  the  Dean's  way 
of  thinking  and  explaining  things,  utterly  precluded 
skepticism,  and  left  no  room  for  endless  doubts  and  un 
certainties.  His  denying  matter  at  first  seemed  shock 
ing  ;  but  it  was  only  for  the  want  of  giving  a  thorough 
attention  to  his  meaning.  It  was  only  the  unintelli 
gible  scholastic  notion  of  matter  he  disputed,  and  not 
anything  either  sensible,  imaginable,  or  intelligible  ; 
and  it  was  attended  with  this  vast  advantage,  that  it 
not  only  gave  new  incontestible  proofs  of  a  Deity,  but 
moreover,  the  most  striking  apprehensions  of  his 
constant  presence  with  us  and  inspection  over  us. 
and  of  our  entire  dependence  on  Him  and  infinite 
obligations  to  his  most  wise  and  almighty  benevo 
lence." 

The  history  of  philosophic  thought  was  blended  to 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  83 

some  extent  with  the  infidelity  of  the  times,  but 
Berkeley  went  a  great  deal  deeper  and  wider  than 
those  who  treated  his  theories  roughly  and  pro 
nounced  them  fallacious  and  bewildering.  It  was  his 
design  in  "  Alciphron ;  or,  the  Minute  Philosopher/' 
to  vindicate  the  Christian  religion,  and  overcome  the 
various  objections  of  atheists,  fatalists,  enthusiasts,  lib 
ertines,  scorners,  critics,  metaphysicians,  and  skeptics. 
Years  before,  while  present  at  one  of  the  deistical 
clubs  in  London,  he  had  heard  a  "  noted  writer  l 
against  Christianity  declare  that  he  had  found  out 
a  demonstration  against  the  being  of  a  God ; "  and 
though  the  thing  was  palpably  false,  he  was  ready 
to  disprove  it,  and  thereby  to  encourage  a  religious 
faith  in  the  constancy  of  a  Divine  and  superintending 
Power.  Johnson  was  doubly  careful  to  guard  the 
truth,  for  he  had  under  his  eye  at  this  time,  and 
directed  in  their  theological  studies,  young  men,  who, 
having  finished  their  collegiate  course,  declared  for 
Episcopacy,  and  were  preparing  to  proceed  to  Eng 
land  for  ordination.  The  following  letter,  otherwise 
interesting,  mentions  two,  Isaac  Browne  and  John 
Pierson,  graduates  of  Yale  Collge  in  1729  :  — 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  introducing  me  into 
the  company  of  such  worthy  gentlemen  as  Mr.  Browne  and 
Mr.  Pierson,  and  doubt  not  but  they  will  ever  be  a  credit 
to  their  Tutor,  and  a  light  and  ornament  to  the  Church  in 
your  parts  ;  and  I  hope  their  success  will  prove  an  encour 
agement  to  others. 

I  might  now  send  you  a  long  account  of  the  bustle  we 
have  had  here  about  laying  an  excise  on  wine  and  tobacco, 
which  has  put  the  whole  nation  in  a  flame  that  will  not 
presently  be  quenched,  —  of  the  divided  state  we  have  been 
in  as  to  peace  and  war,  by  the  affairs  of  Poland,  where  we 

1  Anthony  Collins. 


84  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

suppose  a  king  is  chosen  by  this  time,  but  as  yet  know  not 
who  is  the  person,  —  of  the  death  of  that  infamous  author 
Tindal,  etc.,  etc.,  —  but  you  will  have  a  better  and  more 
particular  account  by  word  of  mouth,  to  which  therefore  I 
refer  you,  and  am 

Your  hearty  friend  and  servant, 

J.  BERRIMAN. 

SCOTCH  YARD,  August  31,  1733. 

Another  letter  from  the  same  clergyman,  written 
six  months  later,  reveals  the  uneasiness  which  was 
then  felt  about  the  nomination  to  a  vacant  see  of  one 
who  was  accused  of  unsound  theology,  especially  of 
Arianism,  and  of  giving  to  portions  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment  an  allegorical  interpretation  :  — 

DEAR  SIR,  —  ....  Dean  Berkeley  was  lately  made 
a  bishop  in  Ireland.  There  is  a  great  bustle  with  us  about 
the  nomination  of  a  new  bishop  to  the  See  of  Gloucester,  the 
like  to  which  I  know  not  whether  any  history  can  parallel. 
There  is  one  Dr.  Rundle  named  by  our  new  Lord  Chancellor, 
son  to  the  late  Bishop  of  Durham  (Talbot),  to  whom  the 
Doctor  was  Chaplain.  The  Bishop  of  London  makes  a  vigor 
ous  stand  against  him,  and  it  is  said  twenty  of  the  bishops 
have  declared  they  will  have  no  hand  in  his  consecration.  It 
is  objected  against  him,  that  he  has  said  these  words,  or  to 
this  effect,  that  Abraham  was  an  old  dotard,  and  that  no 
man  in  his  senses  could  believe  that  God  would  command  him 
to  sacrifice  his  son.  There  are  two  clergymen,  one  of  which 
is  (Dr.  Stebbing)  preacher  at  Gray's  Inn,  and  chaplain  to 
the  King,  who  will  make  good  this  charge  against  him  upon 
oath,  to  prevent  his  confirmation  ;  though  if  the  court  will 
have  it  so,  we  reckon  all  opposition  will  be  in  vain.  This 
matter  has  been  a  good  while  in  suspense,  and  God  only 
knows  how  it  will  end.  He  knows  how  to  bring  good  out  of 
evil,  and  may  He  order  all  for  good. 

I  am  very  heartily,  yours,  etc., 

F«6.i5, 1734.  J.  BERRIMAN. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  85 

And  Johnson  replied  as  follows  :  — 

August  18,  1734. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  very  thankfully  received  yours  of  February 
15,  and  am  deeply  affected  with  the  story  you  tell  me  about 
Dr.  Ruiidle.  It  seems  the  enemies  of  Christianity  are  re 
solved  to  leave  no  stone  unturned  in  order  to  demolish  it. 
This  contrivance  of  endeavoring  to  furnish  out  the  bench 
of  bishops  with  infidels,  is  a  notable  step,  which  I  doubt  not 
but  they  will  further  pursue  as  the  times  will  bear  it.  I 
conclude  the  favorite  doctor  is  consecrated  before  now,  for 
I  have  since  heard  that  all  the  foundation  of  the  outcry 
against  him,  was  only  that  he  said  there  were  some  allego 
ries  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  that  he  was  horridly  abused, 
and  so  it  was  likely  to  be  hushed  up.  I  shall  be  much  obliged 
to  you  to  let  me  know  what  is  the  true  event  of  this  affair, 
and  who  succeeds  at  York  and  Winchester,  and  is  likely  to 
succeed  at  Canterbury ;  and  what  other  events  occur ;  espe 
cially  about  the  progress  of  infidelity,  which,  with  many  other 
things,  seems  to  have  a  most  ominous  aspect  on  our  poor 
Church  and  nation.  Notwithstanding  infidelity,  I  hope  the 
Church  of  England  will  yet  more  and  more  take  root  down 
ward,  and  bear  fruit  upward  in  these  American  parts,  where 
several  dissenting  ministers  are,  and  many  people  have  been 
hastening  into  her  bosom.  A  worthy  gentleman,  one  Mr. 
Arnold,  has  lately  left  them  and  come  over  to  us  ;  he  had 
been  my  successor ;  he  only  wants  to  be  encouraged  by  the 
Society  (with  whom  things  at  present,  I  perceive,  run  pretty 
low)  to  come  over  for  ordination ;  in  the  mean  time  will  do 
all  the  good  he  can  in  a  lay  capacity.  My  very  humble 
service  to  the  Doctor,  Mr.  Scullard,  and  all  friends. 
I  am,  dear  Sir, 

Your  most  affectionate  friend  and  humble  servant, 

S.  J. 

A  second  letter  from  his  friend  touching  the  case  of 
Dr.  Rundle  gives  a  fuller  explanation  of  it,  and  has 
a  postscript  which  shows  the  extent  to  which  an  in 
fidel  moralist  in  that  age  dared  to  proceed :  — 


86  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

DEAK  SIR,  —  Yours  of  Aug.  last  came  safely  to  me  by 
the  post ;  and  since  that  I  have  had  a  packet  from  Dr. 
Cutler,  in  which  came  your  second  letter  to  a  Dissenter, 
which  I  read  over  with  great  pleasure,  and  for  which  I  now 
return  you  many  thanks.  You  have  had,  I  find,  wrong  ac 
counts  of  Dr.  Rundle's  promotion,  though  before  this  you 
may  have  been  set  right  by  the  public  news.  He  did  not 
get  the  Bishopric  of  Gloucester,  at  last,  but  since  that  dis 
pute  has  got  one  of  more  than  three  times  the  value  of  that, 

which  is  Londonderry,  Ireland.      The  great  Sir  R said  he 

could  not  do  without  the  Ch  — 1 —  r,  and  he  must  be  obliged. 
I  forgot  whether  I  told  you  that  Dr.  R.  had  been  charged 
with  saying  that  Abraham  wras  an  old  dotard  and  that  no  man 
could  believe  God  should  command  him  to  sacrifice  his  son, 
and  that  Dr.  Stebbing,  chaplain  to  the  King,  and  Mr.  Venn, 
minister  of  S*  Antholin's,  were  his  accusers ;  but  besides  this, 
the  opposition  he  met  with  from  the  Bishop  of  London  was 
grounded  on  strong  suspicions  of  his  being  in  the  Arian 
scheme. 

The  Abp.  of  York  (Dr.  Blackburn)  is  still  living.  Bp. 
Hoadly  is  translated  from  Sarum  to  Winchester,  and  'tis 
thought  as  matters  now  stand,  if  Abp.  Wake  should  die,  the 
Bp.  of  London  will  go  to  Canterbury,  though  an  alteration 
at  Court  may  possibly  give  Dr.  Sherlock  the  advantage.  Dr. 
Benson  is  promoted  to  the  See  of  Gloucester,  and  Dr.  Seeker, 
who  succeeded  Dr.  Clark  at  St.  James's,  is  made  Bp.  of  Bris 
tol,  the  late  Bp.  Herring  being  translated  to  Bangor  in  the 
room  of  Bp.  Sherlock,  translated  to  Salisbury,  and  Dr.  Flem 
ing,  late  Dean  of  Carlisle,  is  made  Bp.  of  that  See  in  the  room 
of  Bp.  Waugh,  deceased.  Benson  and  Seeker  were  Preben 
daries  of  Durham,  and  both  ('tis  said)  promoted  to  appease 
the  Ch  — 1  —  r,  but  nothing  would  do  till  Rundle  was  made 
a  bishop. 

I  am,  dear  Sir, 

Your  affectionate  friend  and  humble  servant, 

J.  BERRLMAN. 

SCOTCH  YARD,  Apr.  5,  1 735. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  87 

There  has  been  lately  published  a  book  here  which  strikes 
a  note  higher  in  the  scheme  of  infidel  morality  than  perhaps 
you  ever  heard  of,  and  that  is  to  show  fornication  to  be  a 
necessary  duty.  Increase  and  multiply  is  the  duty ;  and 
adultery  itself  is  justified  to  promote  this  end,  but  besides  all 
this  the  book  is  wrote  in  the  grave  way  with  prayers  and 
praises  and  other  instances  of  blasphemy.  The  bookseller 
is  taken  up  by  the  King's  messenger.  The  author  is  said  in 
the  title  page  to  be  a  clergyman.  I  hear  he  is  one  of  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland. 

The  Church  of  England  in  Connecticut  was  sur 
rounded  from  the  beginning  with  bitter  opponents. 
By  this  time  others  had  followed  the  example  of 
Johnson  in  leaving  the  Congregational  ministry  and 
conforming  to  Episcopacy,  and  among  the  people  a 
spirit  of  religious  inquiry  had  been  awakened  which 
it  was  not  easy  to  check.  The  case  of  John  Beach, 
born  in  Stratford  and  graduated  at  Yale  College  in 
1721,  attracted  much  attention.  For  eight  years  he 
had  been  settled  over  the  Independents  or  Congre- 
gationalists  at  Newtown,  about  twenty  miles  distant 
from  the  place  of  his  nativity,  and  was  a  "  popular 
and  insinuating  young  man,"  but  early  in  1732,  he 
publicly  informed  his  people  of  a  change  in  his  views, 
and  declared  his  determination  to  cross  the  Atlantic 
and  receive  holy  orders  in  the  Church  of  England. 
At  the  instance  of  his  friends,  he  was  sent  back  by  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  with  the 
appointment  of  a  missionary  in  the  town  and  vicin 
ity  where  he  had  lately  ministered  and  was  so  well 
known,  beloved,  and  respected.  The  following  extract 
from  a  letter  of  Johnson  to  the  Bishop  of  London 
dated  April  5,  1732,  refers  to  his  character  and  con 
version  :  — 


88  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

....  My  Lord,  as  the  Church  here  has  been  very  unfor 
tunate  in  the  defeat  of  the  noble  design  of  the  Reverend  the 
Dean  of  Londonderry,  which,  especially  if  it  had  been  exe 
cuted  on  the  Continent,  would  have  been  of  great  advantage 
to  the  interest  of  religion  and  learning  in  America,  so  it  has, 
on  the  other  hand,  been  happy  since  in  the  conversion  (be 
sides  a  number  of  other  good  people)  of  the  worthy  persons 
who  have  all  had  a  public  education  in  the  neighboring  Col 
lege,  and  two  of  them  have  been  dissenting  teachers  ;  two  of 
them  will  go  into  other  business,  and  one  of  them  is  Mr. 
Beach,  the  bearer  hereof,  whom  I  know,  by  long  experience 
of  him  (he  having  been  heretofore  my  pupil,  and  ever  since 
my  neighbor)  to  be  a  very  ingenuous  and  studious  person, 
and  a  truly  serious  and  conscientious  Christian ;  but  I  forbear 
to  say  anything  further  of  his  case,  and  refer  your  Lordship 
to  our  joint  recommendation  of  him. 

The  conformity  of  Mr.  Beach  to  Episcopacy,  not 
withstanding  the  admitted  excellence  of  his  character, 
stirred  up  his  "  congregationalist  neighbors "  more 
than  any  former  defections  from  their  ranks,  and  a 
sharp  controversy  arose  which  reached  on  through 
many  years.  There  was  much  in  the  prevalent  teach 
ing  of  the  day  that  savored  of  bigotry.  The  sin  of 
covenant  breaking  was  charged  upon  those  who  left 
the  Congregational  order,  and  Johnson  drew  up  and 
published,  partly  at  the  instance  of  William  Beach,  a 
brother  of  the  above  named  clergyman,  a  tract  to  meet 
this  charge,  and  give  plain  reasons  for  conforming  to 
the  Church.  He  was  answered  by  John  Graham,  a 
Presbyterian  minister  in  Southbury,  and  a  reply  and 
rejoinder  followed.  The  tracts  of  Johnson  were  in  the 
form  of  "  Letters  from  a  Minister  of  the  Church  of 
England  to  his  Dissenting  Parishioners,"  and  he  wrote 
three  of  them,  the  second  of  which  he  began  with 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  89 

paragraphs  that   outline    the   history   of  the   move 
ment  :  — 

My  writing  my  former  letter  to  take  off  the  aspersions 
which  have  been  injuriously  cast  upon  the  Church,  was 
principally  occasioned  by  this  very  J.  G.,  who,  without  any 
manner  of  provocation,  had  (as  some  of  his  friends  have 
owned)  written  a  scurrilous  paper  or  verses  which  did  most 
abominably  misrepresent  and  abuse  the  Church,  and  tend  to 
beget  in  people  a  very  wrong  notion  of  it,  and  a  bitter  un 
charitable  temper  towards  it ;  and  now,  in  spite  of  all  the 
caution  and  tenderness  wherewith  I  endeavored  to  conduct 
myself,  both  in  my  conversation  and  letter,  is  still  resolved 
to  go  on  reproaching  and  misrepresenting  us,  and  setting  us 
in  all  the  odious  and  ridiculous  lights  he  can  invent.  For 
my  part,  I  sincerely  aimed  at  reconciling  the  difference  be 
tween  you  and  us,  and  composing  our  spirits  as  far  as  I  was 
able,  that  if  possible  we  might  come  at  a  right  understanding 
of  each  other,  and  a  good  agreement ;  or  at  least  if  we  could 
not  attain  to  think  alike,  that  we  might  not  think  hardly, 
censoriously,  or  injuriously  of  each  other,  and  might  live  in 
tolerable  good  peace  and  charity  one  with  another.  But 
this  man  is  resolved  to  set  and  keep  us  still  at  variance,  and 
to  blow  up  the  fire  of  contention  and  uncharitableness,  and 
all,  forsooth,  under  the  pretense  of  doing  justice  !  though 
you  will  find  by  what  follows,  that  his  remarks  are  in  truth 
one  continued  piece  of  injustice. 

As  Johnson  was  the  leading  spirit  among  the  Epis 
copal  clergy  in  the  New  England  and  northern  col 
onies,  the  defense  of  the  Church  fell  to  his  pen,  and 
it  is  surprising  that  he  found  time  with  all  his  mis 
sionary  duties  to  write  so  much  and  so  ably.  The 
people  read  the  publications  with  avidity,  and  many 
who  had  hitherto  believed  the  Church  to  be  full  of 
"  Popery,  Arminianism,  and  the  inventions  of  men/' 
became  acquainted  with  the  Liturgy,  and  were  so 


UO  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

persuaded  of  its  Scriptural  character,  that  they  with 
drew  from  their  former  connections  and  attached 
themselves  to  the  Anglican  Communion.  His  ability 
as  a  controversialist  was  early  recognized  on  the  other 
side,  and  the  following  curious  letter  from  one  of  his 
friends  pays  him  a  compliment  and  gives  a  scrap  of 
history  worth  preserving  :  — 

ETON  COLLEGE,  Sept.  29,  1 735. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  Dr.  Cutler  lately  communicated  to  me  your 
2d  controversial  letter,  for  which  I  am  obliged  to  him  and 
the  author.  It  were  to  be  wished,  that  a  clergyman's  atten 
tion  were  not  called  off  from  the  work  of  the  ministry  by  the 
opposition  of  unreasonable  men  ;  but  I  am  glad  the  cause 
has  found  so  able  a  defender. 

I  send  these  lines  by  my  friends  who  accompany  Mr. 
Oglethorpe  to  Georgia;  they  go  purely  out  of  a  religious 
motive  ;  a  circumstance  not  so  common  among  our  American 
Missionaries.  They  all  are  members  of  the  University  of 
Oxford,  men  of  piety,  learning,  and  zeal.  Mr.  John  Wesley, 
Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Mr.  Charles  Wesley,  student  of 
Ch.  Ch.,  Mr.  Hall  of  Lincoln,  and  Mr.  Salmon  of  Brasenose 
—  all  clergymen.  We  promise  to  ourselves  much  good  from 
their  pious  endeavors  under  the  assistance  and  influence  of 
Mr.  Oglethorpe,  and  that  with  regard  both  [to]  the  Indians 
to  whom  two  of  them  go  as  missionaries,  and  to  the  colony 
itself.  Your  good  offices  in  corresponding  with  them,  and 
advising  and  assisting  them  in  any  respect,  would  be  kindly 
accepted  by  them  and  me. 

I  continue  still  a  member  of  the  University,  though  not 
Fellow  of  C.  C.  C.  I  am  Fellow  of  Eton  Coif:  near  Wind 
sor,  and  have  a  good  living  between  that  place  and  Oxford. 
If  in  any  respect  I  can  be  serviceable  to  you,  my  best  offices 
are  at  your  command. 

Your  affectionate  friend. 

JOHN  BURTON. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  91 

In  answering  this  letter  which  reached  him  about 
a  year  after  its  date,  Johnson  said  it  would  be  "  a 
mighty  pleasure  "  to  him,  indeed,  if  he  were  so  sit 
uated  as  to  converse  or  hold  any  correspondence  with 
ki  gentlemen  of  so  worthy  a  character;"  but  as  the 
distance  from  New  England  to  Georgia  was  not  much 
short  of  a  thousand  miles,  and  no  trade  as  yet  settled 
between  the  colonies,  there  was  little  prospect  that  he 
could  render  them  essential  service.  He  added  at  the 
close  of  his  letter :  "  I  thank  you  also  for  the  candor 
you  express  towards  the  poor  performance  Dr.  Cutler 
sent  you.  Controversy  is  what  I  have  neither  tal 
ents  nor  inclination  for,  but  the  most  abusive  mis 
representations  of  the  Church  which  our  adversaries 
disseminate  among  the  people  has  made  something 
of  this  kind  in  a  manner  necessary." 


92  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 


Librar. 

CHAPTER  V. 


FOREIGN  CORRESPONDENCE  ;  MEMORIAL  TO  THE  GENERAL  AS 
SEMBLY  OF  CONNECTICUT  ;  LETTERS  TO  BERKELEY  ;  WHITE- 
FIELD  IN  NEW  ENGLAND  AND  RELIGIOUS  ENTHUSIASM;  COM 
PLAINT  TO  THE  COMMISSARY  ;  THE  CLERGY  OF  CONNECTICUT 
PETITIONING  FOR  A  RESIDENT  COMMISSARY,  AND  ASKING  THAT 

JOHNSON  BE  APPOINTED  ;  DOCTOR'S  DEGREE  FROM  THE  UNI 
VERSITY  OF  OXFORD. 

A.  D.  1736-1743. 

BESIDES  his  extensive  correspondence  in  this  coun 
try,  upon  Johnson  devolved  the  chief  duty  of  com 
municating  with  friends  at  home,  and  keeping  them 
informed  of  everything  here  that  concerned  the  gen 
eral  prosperity  of  the  Church.  His  letters1  to  the 
Bishops  and  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  are  numerous,  and,  for  that 
period,  minute  in  their  details.  He  watched  every 
movement  that  bore  hardly  upon  the  labors  of  the 
missionaries,  and  promptly  suggested  means  of  redress 
and  encouragement.  He  advocated  without  ceasing 
the  appointment  of  bishops  for  America,  as  the  best 
plan  of  settling  the  Church  upon  a  sure  foundation, 
and  saving  it  from  the  reproach  of  enemies.  This 
thought  was  so  constantly  in  his  mind  that  he  some 
times  felt  obliged  to  apologize  for  referring  to  it,  as 
the  following  letter  from  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester 
will  show,  written  under  date  of — 

*  See  Church  Documents,  Connecticut,  vols.  i.  and  ii.,  and  author's  History  of  Epis 
copal  Church  in  Connecticut,  vol.  i. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  93 

LONDON,  March  9,  173|. 

SIK,  — You  needed  no  apology  for  any  application  you 
could  make  to  me  in  relation  to  anything  wherein  you  might 
think  me  capable  of  serving  the  Church  in  America.  I  wish 
my  capacity  were  equal  to  my  desire  of  doing  it.  No  one 
is  more  sensible  of  the  difficulties  in  general  you  labor 
under  in  those  parts,  and  in  particular  of  those  you  complain 
of  for  want  of  a  bishop  residing  among  you.  My  own  interest 
to  be  sure  is  inconsiderable ;  but  the  united  interests  of  the 
bishops  here  is  not  powerful  enough  to  effect  so  reasonable 
and  right  a  thing  as  the  sending  some  bishops  into  America. 
The  person  whom  you  have  sent  hither  to  be  ordained  is 
a  very  sensible,  and  seems  to  be  a  serious  man,  and  it  is 
plain  that  he  came  over  with  no  view  to  his  private  inter 
ests  ;  his  only  motive  could  be  to  embrace  what  he  thought  to 
be  right,  and  his  only  desire  now  seems  to  be  to  be  rendered 
as  serviceable  as  possible  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  I  wish  we 
could  have  sent  him  back  to  you  in  a  post  and  with  a  salary 
better  suited  to  his  deserts ;  but  however  small  the  salary 
may  seem,  the  income  of  the  Society  is  so  very  low  at  pres 
ent,  that  we  were  forced  to  break  through  some  of  our 
rules  and  regulations  to  allot  this  salary  small  as  it  is.  I 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  Vice-Chancellor  of  Oxford  to  recom 
mend  these  gentlemen  l  to  the  University  for  the  favor  of  a 
Degree,  and  I  have  since  received  a  letter  from  him  to  ac 
quaint  me  that  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  is  by  Diploma 
conferred  upon  each  of  them.  I  wish  Mr.  Caner,  who  has  the 
character  from  you  and  every  one  of  a  very  deserving  man, 
might  acquire  a  better  state  of  health  by  his  journey  hither. 

The  Bishop  of  Cloyne  has  for  some  time  been  in  a  very 
bad  state  of  health,  but  by  a  letter  I  have  just  received 
from  him  I  have  the  pleasure  to  hear  he  is  better  than  he 
was. 

I  am,  Sir, 

Your  faithful  servant  and  affectionate  Brother, 

M.  GLOUCESTER. 

l  Jonathan  Arnold  and  Rev.  Henry  Caner. 


94  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

The  plea  was  early  set  up,  and  it  had  its  influence 
with  the  home  government,  that  the  establishment  of 
bishops  in  America  would  lead  to  an  independence 
of  the  Colonies.  Allusion  is  made  to  this,  and  the 
idea  spurned  in  a  letter  of  Johnson  to  the  Bishop  of 
London,  written  — 

Nov.  3,  1 738. 

MY  LORD,  —  I  most  humbly  thank  your  Lordship  for  your 
kind  letter  of  February  3d,  and  in  answer  to  it  can  only  la 
ment  the  unhappiness  of  the  times,  and  that  it  is  not  even  in 
your  Lordship's  power  to  do  those  great  and  good  services 
to  the  Church  in  general  and  here  in  America  in  particu 
lar,  which  you  would  gladly  and  have  faithfully  labored  to 
do.  All  I  can  say  is,  that  though  it  is  a  most  unaccounta 
ble  way  of  reasoning  to  conclude  in  us  Americans  any  dis 
position  towards  an  independency  on  our  mother  country 
from  our  general  desire  of  bishops  to  preside  over  us,  —  the 
reverse  of  which  is  the  truth,  —  yet  since  it  is  thus  (and 
doubtless  there  are  many  more  instances  as  strange  as  this 
in  the  reasoning  of  this  desperate  age),  we  must  patiently 
submit  and  wait  upon  Providence  till  it  shall  please  God 
to  enlighten  the  minds  of  men,  and  send  us  better  times. 
I  have  delayed  the  longer  to  acknowledge  your  Lordship's 
kind  letter,  because  I  was  Availing  to  wait  the  issue  of  an 
affair  that  has  been  in  agitation  among  us,  which  I  expected 
to  have  given  your  Lordship  an  account  of  myself,  but 
since  Mr.  Arnold  J  is  obliged  to  go  home  this  fall  on  that 

1  Jonathan  Arnold,  the  successor  of  Samuel  Johnson  in  the  Congregational  minis 
try  at  West  Haven,  conformed  to  Episcopacy  in  1734,  and  afterwards  went  to  Eng 
land  where  he  received  holy  orders,  as  may  be  learned  from  the  Bishop  of  Glouces 
ter's  letter  on  the  preceding  page.  He  was  not  lost,  as  has  been  sometimes  stated,  on 
a  second  voyage  to  England  in  1739.  He  did  not  go  home  on  the  "  affairs  "  referred 
to  above,  but  removed  to  Staten  Island,  N".  Y.,  where  he  became  the  Society's  mis 
sionary  in  charge  of  St.  Andrew's  Church.  See  History  of  Episcopal  Church  in 
Connecticut,  vol.  i.  c.  viii.  Complaints  against  Mr.  Arnold  by  the  wardens  and  ves 
trymen  were  transmitted  to  the  Society,  and  by  an  order  bearing  date  June  21, 
174r>,  he  was  "dismissed  from  being  their  missionary  to  the  Church  of  St.  Andrew." 
The  Itev.  T.  B.  Chandler  writing  to  the  Rev.  l>r.  Johnson  from  Elizabethtown, 
February  2(5,  1753,  said:  "I  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  your  favor  of  January 
29,  and  am  sorry  to  tell  you  that  Mr.  Arnold  did  nothing  in  his  will  for  his  children 
iu  New  England.  Mrs.  Arnold  was  left  sole  executrix,  and  everything  her  hu»- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  95 

and  some  other  affairs,  I  beg  leave  to  refer  your  Lordship 
to  our  joint  address  to  your  Lordship,  and  remain  —  may  it 
please  your  Lordship  —  yours,  etc.,  S.  J. 

Any  letter  from  Johnson  to  a  friend  in  London, 
was  sure  to  be  welcomed,  and  few  young  men  went 
over  for  holy  orders,  who  did  not  deem  it  necessary 
to  take  from  him  a  note  of  introduction.  His  old  as 
sociate  in  the  first  struggle  for  Episcopacy  in  Con 
necticut  —  Dr.  Cutler  —  solicited  his  good  offices, 
when  he  was  about  to  send  his  son,  a  graduate  of 
Harvard  College  in  1732,  on  the  same  errand  which 
had  carried  them  to  England  many  years  before. 
The  answer  which  one  of  his  correspondents  returned 
is  a  matter  of  historic  interest :  — 

DEAR  SIR, —  I  had  the  favor  of  yours  of  September  last 
by  Mr.  Cutler  ;  who  intends  to  make  a  longer  stay  with  us 
than  you  thought  of.  He  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  get  a 
curacy  of  <£50  per  annum  in  Essex,  about  30  miles  from  Lon 
don,  where  he  may  live  cheap  and  save  money  to  buy  books, 
and  he  will  have  a  very  great  advantage  in  conversing  a 
good  part  of  the  year  with  his  Rector,  Dr.  Walker,  a  very 
ingenious  and  learned  man,  who  will  assist  him  vastly  in 
critical  learning,  and  furnish  him  for  the  present  with  all 
sorts  of  books  he  has  occasion  for.  Dr.  MacSparran  has 
been  honored  with  a  Degree  by  the  University  of  Oxford, 
and  might  to  be  sure  go  on  it  ad  eundem  at  Cambridge,  but 
I  believe  he  will  scarce  have  time  to  go  thither.  I  hear 
with  much  pleasure  that  he  has  prevailed  with  the  Bp.  of 
London  to  appoint  Mr.  Checkley  a  missionary,  and  hope  we 
shall  soon  see  him  here  in  London. 

band  died  possessed  of  was  left  to  her  disposal.  However,  she  says  she  is  willing 
that  his  children  in  New  England  should  come  in  for  shares  with  her  own  child  in 
whatsoever  he  left  in  your  parts;  and  I  believe  she  will  not  recall  it.  As  to  the  tem 
per  of  mind  in  which  Mr.  Arnold  left  the  world,  I  find  that  he  had  his  reason  for 
some  months  before  his  death,  which  he  retained  to  the  last.  But  I  have  not  heard 
what  remarks  or  reflections  he  made  on  his  past  life,  and  what  was  the  moral  dispo 
sition  of  his  mind."  —  MS.  Letter. 


96  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Your  good  friend  the  Bp.  of  Oxford  is  translated  to  Can 
terbury,  to  the  universal  satisfaction  of  almost  everybody. 
Dr.  Lisle  at  Bow  might  have  succeeded  him,  but  declined  it, 
and  the  general  expectation  is  that  Dr.  Seeker,  Bp.  of  Bris 
tol,  will  be  removed  to  Oxford,  to  make  way  for  Dr.  Goocli 
to  go  to  Bristol,  who  (according  to  custom)  could  not  be  Bp. 
of  Oxford  as  being  a  Cambridge  man.  Dr.  Gooch  is  brother- 
in-law  to  Bp.  Sherlock  (of  Salisbury),  whom  now  in  con 
junction  with  the  Abp.  of  Canterbury  we  reckon  to  be  at  the 
head  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  —  perhaps  I  should  add  here 
with  us,  for  with  you  to  be  sure  the  Bp.  of  London  is  and 
must  be  at  the  head. 

I  am,  dear  Sir, 

Your  assured  friend  and  humble  servant. 

J.  BERRIMAN. 

SCOTCH  YARD,  Apr.  14,  1737. 

Johnson  was  a  great  reader,  and  no  new  publica 
tion  of  any  merit  appeared  in  England  which  he  did 
not  immediately  send  for.  In  one  of  his  letters  to 
Mr.  Berriman  he  said  :  "  I  am  particularly  thankful 
for  the  intelligence  you  have  given  me  about  books, 
a  subject  I  shall  always  be  glad  our  correspondence 
may  turn  upon,  for  I  want  very  much  to  know  what 
passes  among  the  learned  world."  Intelligent  people 
at  that  period  read  solid  works,  and  he  was  ever  ready 
to  lend  anything  that  he  possessed  to  those  who 
were  earnest  seekers  of  the  truth.  In  the  following 
note  to  Mr.  Berriman,  there  is  an  allusion  for  the 
first  time  to  one  whose  movements  in  this  country 
were  soon  to  fill  him  with  watchfulness  and  anx 
iety  :  — 

Sept.  10,  1739. 

DEAR  SIR, — Your  kind  letter  of  January  10,  1739,  came 
not  to  my  hands  till  some  time  this  summer.  I  am  very 
much  obliged  to  you  for  it,  and  for  your  care  in  procuring 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  97 

and  sending  Parker's  "  Eusebius,"  which  I  desired  Mr.  Cut 
ler  to  get  for  me  to  make  up  my  set,  having  had  the  first 
volume  burnt  in  a  house  where  I  had  lent  it. 

I  have  not  seen  Mr.  Checkley  1  since  his  arrival,  but  hear 
he  is  like  to  be  very  useful  at  Providence.  I  have  nothing 
remarkable  to  tell  you  from  hence.  Though  the  Church  here 
is  very  ill-treated  by  these  dissenting  governments,  yet  it 
daily  increases.  I  should  be  glad  to  know  from  you  what  is 
the  general  sense  of  the  clergy  about  Mr.  Whitefield  and  his 
proceedings,  of  which  our  newspapers  are  generally  filled. 

1  John  Checkley,  born  of  English  parents  in  the  city  of  Boston,  1680,  finished  his 
studies  at  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  afterwards  travelled  over  the  greatest  part 
of  Europe.  As  the  reader  has  already  seen,  he  was  with  Johnson  in  London  in  1723, 
and  upon  returning  to  this  country  published  a  pamphlet  entitled:  A  Modest  Proof 
of  the  Order  and  Government  settled  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  in  the  Church."  It 
was  the  forerunner  of  the  controversy  upon  Episcopacy  on  this  continent,  and  un 
doubtedly  had  the  approval  and  encouragement  of  Cutler  and  Johnson.  The  author 
of  a  reply,  Rev.  Jonathan  Dickinson,  observed  that  it  was  said  to  be  reprinted  at 
Boston,  but  he  did  not  remember  that  he  had  ever  seen  any  former  edition. 

A  second  edition  of  the  reply  together  with  an  appendix,  called,  Remarks  on  some 
part  of  Mr.  P.  Barclay's  Persuasive,  soon  appeared.  The  latter  was  by  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Foxcroft,  a  Presbyterian  divine  of  Boston,  who  invited  Johnson  to  a  friendly 
discussion  of  the  claims  of  Episcopacy,  and  wrote  him  two  long  letters,  one  in  June 
and  the  other  in  August,  1726,  besides  sending  him  books  and  a  pamphlet,  entitled 
A  Vindication,  etc.  Careful  answers  were  returned  to  these  letters,  and  in  one  of 
them,  referring  to  the  Vindication,  Johnson  said:  "  If  you  could  not  be  satisfied  with 
out  seeing  some  remarks  upon  this  performance,  —  there  is  a  gentleman  in  your  neigh 
borhood,  far  more  able  than  I  am,  who  if  he  were  addressed  in  that  gentlemanly  and 
friendly  Christian  manner,  wherewith  you  seem  to  aim  at  treating  me,  would,  I  doubt 
not,  do  it  to  your  satisfaction,  and  with  as  much  Christian  friendly  temper,  modera 
tion,  and  forbearance,  as  you  can  wish  for  from  me ;  notwithstanding  that  he  is  so 
injuriously  dressed  up  like  a  morose  furioso,  in  the  imaginations  of  your  people,  and 
notwithstanding  the  ungentlemanly,  unchristian  treatment  he  meets  with  among 
you." 

The  pamphlet,  A  Modest  Proof,  etc.,  was  followed  by  a  republication  of  Leslie's 
" Short  and  Easy  Method  with  the  Deists,  to  which  was  annexed  a  Discourse  concerning 
Episcopacy,  sold  by  John  Checkley."  For  this  he  was  arrested  as  a  libeler,  tried  be 
fore  a  jury,  and  mulcted  in  fifty  pounds  to  the  king,  and  costs  of  prosecution,  with 
securities  for  his  good  behavior  for  six  months.  Checkley  reprinted  his  Discourse 
Concerning  Episcopacy  in  1728,  in  London,  whither  he  went  for  holy  orders  —  but 
obstacles  were  thrown  in  his  way,  and  he  returned  without  accomplishing  his  pur 
pose.  His  desire  to  serve  God  in  the  ministry  of  the  Church  was  unquenched,  and 
again,  when  he  was  on  the  verge  of  threescore  years,  he  crossed  the  ocean,  and  was 
ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  and  appointed  a  missionary  to  Providence,  R.  I., 
where  he  officiated  till  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1753.  His  son  John  graduated  at 
Harvard  College,  in  1738,  and  went  to  England  for  ordination ;  but  fell  a  victim  to 
the  small-pox,  and  died  during  his  sojourn  abroad,  in  1743. 
7 


98  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

There  has  been  very  much  such  a  stir  among  the  Dissenters 
in  some  parts  of  this  country  as  he  makes  in  England. 
I  am,  sir,  yours,  etc. 

S.  J. 

The  members  and  professors  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land  living  in  Connecticut  were  aggrieved  by  an  act 
of  the  Colonial  legislature,  whereby  the  proceeds  aris 
ing  from  the  sale  of  certain  lands  were  designated  for 
the  sole  benefit  of  the  Congregational  ministers  and 
people.  They  complained  of  the  injustice  of  denying 
them  a  share  in  the  public  moneys  for  the  support 
of  their  ministers,  and  a  memorial  was  sent  to  the 
General  Assembly,  signed  by  nearly  seven  hundred 
males  attached  to  the  Church  of  England,  and  asking 
for  themselves  equal  privileges  and  protection.  This 
memorial,  which  carefully  recited  no  less  than  seven 
reasons  why  the  legislative  action  should  be  amended, 
was  drawn  up  by  Johnson  as  were  all  similar  memo 
rials  prepared  during  his  lifetime,  and  having  refer 
ence  to  the  rights  of  Churchmen  in  Connecticut.  He 
apprised  his  friends  in  England  of  these  movements, 
and  sought  their  advice  whenever  he  was  in  any  per 
plexity.  The  College  at  New  Haven  continued  to  in 
terest  him,  and  not  only  his  affection  for  it,  but  his 
agency  in  securing  important  donations,  led  him  to 
watch  its  progress  and  attend  the  public  examinations 
in  Greek  and  Latin,  to  which  he  was  invited  as  the 
senior  Episcopal  Missionary  in  the  colony,  according 
to  the  terms  of  Berkeley's  gift.  So  early  as  1735,  the 
Bishop  of  Cloyne  wrote  him,  expressing  great  pleasure 
to  find  that  a  member  of  his  own  family,  Benjamin 
Nicoll,  had  won  distinction  as  a  "  scholar  of  the  house," 
and  he  added  a  few  words  to  indicate  something  of  his 


OF    SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  99 

design  in  founding  the  scholarship  :  "  One  principal 
end  proposed  by  me  was  to  promote  a  better  under 
standing  with  the  Dissenters,  and  so  by  degrees  to  les 
sen  their  dislike  to  our  communion  ;  to  which  end  me- 
thought  the  improving  their  minds  with  liberal  studies 
might  greatly  conduce,  as  I  am  very  sensible  that  your 
own  discreet  behavior  andnmnner  of  living  towards 
th em7'TTaTh~very  much  forwarded  the  same  effect.'7 
The  subject  of  the  memorial  was  the  "  affair  "'upon 
which  the  Connecticut  Clergy  jointly  addressed  the 
Bishop  of  London ;  and  Johnson  wrote  to  Berkeley 
about  it,  and  about  the  treatment  of  Mr.  Arnold,  more 
pointedly,  when  in  the  following  letter  he  reported  "  a 
good  struggle  for  the  scholarship  :  "  — 

May  14,  1739. 

MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUE,  LORDSHIP,  —  I  humbly  thank 
your  Lordship  for  your  very  obliging  letter  of  May  11,  1738, 
which  came  not  to  my  hands  till  precisely  that  day  twelve 
months  after  it  was  written,  and  in  the  very  interim  when 
(having  lately  attended  on  the  examination  of  the  scholars  at 
Yale  College  for  your  Lordship's  premium)  T  was  meditat 
ing  to  write  to  your  Lordship  and  give  you  some  account  of 
the  condition  of  things  among  us  ;  which  is  as  follows  :  We 
had  a  good  struggle  this  year  for  the  scholarship,  and  it  is 
very  agreeable  to  see  to  what  perfection  classical  learning 
is  advanced  in  comparison  with  what  it  was  before  your 
Lordship's  donation  to  this  College,  though  I  cannot  say  it 
has  much  increased  for  these  two  years  past,  and  I  doubt  it 
is  got  to  something  of  a  stand.  Another  son  of  Mr.  Williams 
has  got  it  this  year,  who  had  manifestly  the  advantage  of  the 
rest ;  but  I  think  none  have  ever  performed  to  so  great  per 
fection  as  one  Whittelsey  last  year,  who  is  son  of  a  neighbor 
ing  minister,  whose  performance  was  very  extraordinary,  not 
only  for  the  scholarship,  but  also  for  books  purchased  with 
some  money  that  had  been  forfeited  by  the  resignation  of 
Leonard. 


100  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

I  am  very  sorry  to  tell  your  Lordship  how  ungrateful 
New  Haven  people  have  been  to  the  Church  after  so  many 
benefactions  their  College  hath  received  from  that  quarter,  in 
raising  a  mob  and  keeping  Mr.  Arnold  vi  et  armis  from  tak 
ing  possession  of  the  land,  which,  as  I  told  your  Lordship  in 
my  last,  one  Mr.  Gregson  of  London  had  given  him  to  build 
a  church  on  near  the  College.1 

Another  instance  of  injurious  treatment  the  Church  has 
lately  met  with  from  this  ungrateful  country  has  been  in  the 
General  Assembly  denying  a  most  reasonable  petition  as  laid 
before  them  last  year.  The  case  was  this  :  all  the  lands  with 
in  the  bounds  of  this  Government  [Connecticut]  were  by 
charter  alike  granted  to  all  the  inhabitants,  without  limita 
tion  to  those  of  any  particular  denomination  in  matters  of 
religion.  Now  of  these  lands  there  remained  a  sufficient 
quantity  for  seven  new  townships,  which  were  lately  laid  out 
and  ordered  to  be  sold,  and  the  money  (amounting  to  about 
£70,000)  to  be  considered  as  the  common  right  of  the  whole 
community.  When  it  was  considered  how  to  dispose  of  it,  it 
was  at  length  concluded  that  it  should  be  divided  proportion 
ally  to  each  town,  according  to  their  estates,  for  the  support 
of  dissenting  teachers  ;  whereby  the  Church  people,  who  had 
manifestly  a  right  to  their  proportion  of  it,  were  excluded. 
Whereupon  we  presented  our  humble  address  to  the  Assem 
bly,  signed  by  every  male  of  the  Church  in  the  Government 

1  In  a  pamphlet  entitled  A  Vindication  of  the  Bishop  of  Landaff's  Sermon  from 
the  Gross  Misrepresentations  and  Abusive  Reflections  contained  in  Mr.  Wm.  Living- 
tton's  Letter  to  hi*  Lordship,  published  in  1768,  the  author,  after  speaking,  page  40,  of 
the  treatment  of  the  Society's  Missionaries  in  New  England,  says:  "  Perhaps  Mr. 
Livingston  may  remember  some  instances  of  this  himself;  once  especially  in  a  gal 
lant  exploit  performed  by  the  students  of  Yale  College,  in  which  he  was  more  than  a 
spectator.  The  scene  of  this  noble  action  was  a  lot  of  ground  in  the  town  of  New 
Ffaven,  which  had  been  bequeathed  to  the  CHURCH  for  the  use  of  a  missionary. 
There  these  magnanimous  champions  signalized  themselves;  for  once  upon  a  time, 
quitting  soft  dalliance  with  the  muses,  they  roughened  into  sons  of  Mars,  and  issu 
ing  forth  in  deep  and  firm  array,  with  courage  bold  and  undaunted,  they  not  only  at 
tacked,  but  bravely  routed  a  YOKE  OF  OXEN  and  a  poor  Plowman,  which  had  been 
sent  by  the  then  Missionary  of  New  Haven,  to  occupy  and  plow  up  the  said  lot  of 
ground.  An  exploit  truly  worthy  of  the  renowned  Hudibras  himself  !  "  The  pam 
phlet,  though  published  anonymously,  was  written  by  Dr.  Inglis  of  New  York, 
afterwards  first  Lord  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia. 


OF    SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  101 

above  sixteen,  to  the  number  of  about  seven  hundred,  praying 
we  might  have  our  proportion  in  these  public  moneys.  But 
they  were  pleased  to  pass  a  negative  upon  it ;  and  I  should  be 
very  thankful  for  your  Lordship's  advice  whether  it  be  worth 
our  while  to  apply  to  the  King  and  Council  on  this  affair. 

I  heartily  rejoice  with  your  Lordship  in  the  health  and 
prosperity  of  your  lady  and  family,  and  am  no  less  grieved 
for  the  illness  you  labor  under,  in  your  own  person.  I  sin 
cerely  pray,  God  remove  it,  and  give  you  health. 

Good  Dr.  Cutler  is  in  great  grief,  having  lately  lost  a 
very  hopeful  son,  nigh  of  age  for  Orders.  Mr.  Honyman 
has  been  till  lately  very  much  indisposed  with  grief  for  the 
loss  of  his  spouse,  but  is  within  these  few  months  recovered 
and  married  again  to  one  Mrs.  Brown,  an  elderly  gentle 
woman,  mother  to  Capt.  Brown  of  Newport.  With  our 
humble  duty  to  your  lady, 

I  remain,  may  it  please  your  Lordship,  etc. 

S.  J. 

All  letters  to  his  English  correspondents  at  this 
period  allude  to  the  action  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and  in  some  of  them,  he  speaks  of  the  fickleness  of 
Mr.  Arnold  and  his  removal  to  Staten  Island.  In 
writing  to  Dr.  Astry,  April  10,  1740,  he  said  :  "  I  am 
sorry  the  Society  found  themselves  under  a  necessity 
of  removing  him  to  any  other  mission,  though  I  con 
fess  he  has  not  conducted  so  discreetly  of  late,  espe 
cially  since  he  had  an  intimation  of  it,  as  I  could  wish, 
and  I  fear  the  Church  in  these  parts  will  much  suf 
fer  on  this  occasion.  At  least  his  people  falling  of 
course  again  under  my  care  will  be  a  very  great  ad 
dition  to  my  burden." 

The  memorialists  were  not  disheartened  by  the  re 
fusal  to  grant  their  petition,  and  the  clergy  renewed 
it  so  earnestly  that  at  last,  rather  than  let  the  Church 


102  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

have  its  share,  a  proposition  to  repeal  was  adopted, 
and  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  lands  by  a  former 
act  went  to  the  maintenance  of  popular  education. 
Johnson  writing  to  the  Bishop  of  Cloyne  shortly 
before  the  repeal  took  place,  referred  to  the  me 
morial  once  more,  but  seemed  to  be  hopeless  of  any 
redress :  — 

June  20,  1740. 

MY  LORD,  —  I  did  myself  the  honor  to  write  to  you 
about  a  year  ago,  and  ackowledged  yours  of  May  11,  1738, 
and  gave  you  some  account  of  the  condition  of  things  among 
us  in  this  Colony,  and  especially  the  College,  which  is  so  much 
indebted  to  your  Lordship,  that  I  think  it  is  but  fit  that  your 
Lordship  should,  at  least  once  a  year,  have  some  account  of 
the  success  of  your  generous  donation  to  it ;  and  this  I  hope 
will  apologize  for  my  troubling  your  Lordship  once  in  a  while 
with  some  account  of  our  affairs  which  otherwise  would  not 
deserve  your  notice. 

Our  College  has  been  in  a  very  unsettled  position  this 
last  year,  which  perhaps  may  be  the  reason  that  there  has 
not  this  May  appeared  quite  so  good  a  proficiency  in  clas 
sical  learning  as  heretofore  (though  very  considerable  com 
pared  with  what  used  to  be),  there  having  been  an  interreg 
num  of  seven  or  eight  months  wherein  it  has  had  no  Rector. 
Mr.  Williams  had  been  much  out  of  health  for  some  months, 
and  last  fall  was  persuaded  it  was  owing  to  his  sedentary  life 
and  the  sea-side  air,  and  accordingly  took  up  a  resolution, 
from  which  he  would  not  be  dissuaded,  to  retire  up  into  the 
country,  where  he  has  lived  ever  since,  and  where,  indeed,  he 
seems  to  have  enjoyed  his  health  better  ;  though  some  people 
are  so  censorious  as  to  judge  that,  considering  the  age  and  de 
clining  state  of  our  Governor,  his  chief  aim  was  to  put  him 
self  in  the  way  of  being  chosen  into  that  post.  But  if  this 
was  his  view,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  he  may  be  disappointed, 
for  upon  a  considerable  struggle  last  election  for  a  new  Gov 
ernor,  he  had  but  few  votes,  and  Mr.  Eliot  had  a  vast  many 


OF    SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  103 

more  than  all  other  competitors  put  together,  and  will  doubt 
less  succeed  whenever  there  is  a  new  choice.  However,  Mr. 
Williams  was  a  Representative  and  Speaker  in  their  Assembly, 
and  was  made  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Superior  Court,  and 
may  possibly  get  to  be  one  of  the  Council  or  Assistants,  which 
is,  I  believe,  the  utmost  he  will  attain  to. 

Upon  his  leaving  the  College  the  Trustees  have  ap 
pointed  one  Mr.  Clap,  late  minister  of  Windham,  to  succeed, 
who  seems  to  be  a  well  tempered  gentleman  and  of  good 
sense  and  much  of  a  mathematician,  and  though  he  is  not  so 
well  acquainted  with  the  classics  as  might  be  wished,  I  hope 
he  will  improve  much  in  that  and  all  other  points  of  learn 
ing,  and  prove  a  good  governor  to  the  College. 

We  have  again  applied  to  the  Assembly  about  the  seven 
new  townships,  that  I  mentioned  to  your  Lordship  in  my  last, 
and  nothing  has  yet  been  done.  Next  October  will  be  the 
last  time  of  asking,  but  I  do  not  expect  they  will  finally  grant 
our  petition.  However,  the  Church  greatly  increases,  espe 
cially  in  the  town.  But  I  grow  tedious,  and  will  not  add 
any  further  save  my  earnest  prayers  for  your  lady  and  family, 
to  whom  my  very  humble  duty.  I  beg  your  prayers,  and  re 
main,  my  Lord,  your  Lordship's,  etc.  S.  J. 

The  arrival  in  New  England  in  the  autumn  of  1740 
of  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield  was  followed  by  an  out 
burst  of  great  religious  enthusiasm.  He  had  been 
ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  and,  before 
coming  to  this  country,  had  given  specimens  of  the 
extraordinary  power  and  erratic  zeal  for  which  he  was 
afterwards  so  celebrated.  There  had  been  "  very 
much  such  a  stir  among  the  Dissenters  "  in  some  of 
the  Colonies  as  he  had  made  in  England,  and  the 
people,  therefore,  were  ripe  for  his  extravagances, 
and  crowded  around  him  when  he  preached  in  the 
open  air  or  in  the  meeting-houses.  He  soon  put 
himself  beyond  the  sympathy  and  sanction  of  the 


104  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

bishops  and  clergy  of  the  Church,  whose  doctrines, 
worship,  and  discipline  he  was  ordained  to  defend  ;  and 
the  more  bitter  his  invectives  against  them  became, 
the  more  earnestly  did  his  adherents  among  the  Inde 
pendent  or  Congregational  ministers  encourage  his 
work  and  promote  his  irregularities.  No  doubt  many 
of  them  regarded  him  as  an  angel  of  light  in  human 
form,  raised  up  by  Divine  Providence  to  awaken  sin 
ners  to  repentance,  to  seriousness  of  life,  and  the  prac 
tice  of  virtue  ;  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  his 
preaching  in  several  instances  was  attended  with 
blessed  results.  But  those  who  welcomed  and  caressed 
him  with  the  idea  that  his  course  was  calculated  to 
check  among  their  people  a  growing  attachment  to 
the  doctrines  and  worship  of  the  Church,  discovered 
at  length  that  so  far  from  this,  it  shattered  and  divided 
their  own  churches,  and  in  the  end  rapidly  increased 
and  strengthened  the  communion  which  they  ex 
pected  to  see  dwindle  and  die. 

Whitefield  had  his  imitators  as  well  as  his  followers 
—  preachers  who  undertook  to  adopt  his  style  and 
imitate  his  dramatic  action,  and  who  travelled  about 
from  place  to  place  seeking  to  make  converts,  and 
disregarding  all  ecclesiastical  rights  and  regulations. 
Then  came  a  set  of  lay-exhorters  who  added  to  the 
popular  confusions  and  fomented  the  flames  which  had 
been  kindled.  Johnson  carefully  watched  the  progress 
of  things  and  was  at  the  head  of  his  clerical  brethren 
in  guiding  and  steadying  the  Church  through  such 
great  and  manifold  perils.  He  wrote  to  the  Arch 
bishop  of  Canterbury,  and  the  Bishops  of  Gloucester, 
London,  and  Cloyne  to  acquaint  them  with  the 
strange  commotions  in  Connecticut,  growing  out  of 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  105 

Whitefield's  itinerancy.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  quote 
only  his  letter  to  Berkeley,  which  contains  other  ref 
erences,  and  is  dated  :  — 

Oct.  3,  1741. 

My  LORD,  —  This  comes  to  your  Lordship  upon  occa 
sion  of  our  recommending  to  the  Society,  Mr.  Richard  Caner 
(brother  to  my  good  neighbor  Mr.  Henry  Caner,  Missionary 
to  Fairfield,  of  whom  you  may  possibly  retain  some  remem 
brance),  who  well  deserves  the  Society's  notice  on  this  oc 
casion.  I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  your  Lordship  that 
upon  the  occasion  of  our  new  Rector,  Mr.  Clap,  and  his  ap 
plication  to  the  business  of  the  College,  we  have  the  satis 
faction  to  see  classical  as  well  as  mathematical  learning  im 
prove  among  us  ;  there  having  been  a  better  appearance  the 
last  May  than  what  I  gave  your  Lordship  an  account  of  be 
fore  ;  for  this  gentleman  proves  a  solid,  rational,  good  man, 
and  much  freer  from  bigotry  than  his  predecessor. 

But  this  new  enthusiasm,  in  consequence  of  Whitefield's 
preaching  through  the  country  and  his  disciples',  has  got 
great  footing  in  the  College  as  well  as  throughout  the  coun 
try.  Many  of  the  scholars  have  been  possessed  of  it,  and  two 
of  this  year's  candidates  were  denied  their  degrees  for  their 
disorderly  and  restless  endeavors  to  propagate  it.  Indeed 
Whitefield's  disciples  have  in  this  country  much  improved 
upon  the  foundation  which  he  laid ;  so  that  we  have  now 
prevailing  among  us  the  most  odd  and  unaccountable  enthu 
siasm  that  perhaps  ever  obtained  in  any  age  or  nation.  For 
not  only  the  minds  of  many  people  are  at  once  struck  with 
prodigious  distresses  upon  their  hearing  the  hideous  outcry  of 
our  itinerant  preachers,  but  even  their  bodies  are  frequently 
in  a  moment  affected  with  the  strangest  convulsions  and 
involuntary  agitations  and  cramps,  which  also  have  some 
times  happened  to  those  who  came  as  mere  spectators,  and 
are  no  friends  to  their  new  methods,  and  even  without  their 
minds  being  at  all  affected.  The  Church,  indeed,  has  not, 
as  yet,  much  suffered,  but  rather  gained  by  these  commo 
tions,  which  no  men  of  sense  of  either  denomination  have 


106  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

at  all  given  in  to,  but  it  has  required  great  care  and  pains 
in  our  clergy  to  prevent  the  mischief.  How  far  God  may 
permit  this  madness  of  the  people  to  proceed,  He  only 
knows.  But  I  hope  that  neither  religion  nor  learning  will 
in  the  whole  event  of  things  much  suffer  by  it. 

I  humbly  beg  an  interest  in  your  Lordship's  prayers  and 
blessing,  and  remain,  etc., 

S.  J. 

In  a  similar  strain  he  wrote  to  his  friend,  Dr.  Astry, 
two  days  before,  and  spoke  of  the  necessity,  if  pos 
sible,  of  an  increase  in  the  number  of  missionaries,  at 
the  same  time  that  he  entreated  him  to  be  present 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Society  when  the  application 
of  Mr.  Caner  was  presented.  The  reply  of  Dr.  Astry 
deserves  a  place  in  this  connection  :  — 

REV.  SIR,  —  I  had  the  favor  of  your  letter  by  Mr.  Caner, 
and  have  out  of  regard  to  your  recommendation  of  him  at 
tended  the  Board  whilst  his  business  was  depending.  I 
hope  and  believe  that  you  will  find  him  satisfied  with  what 
has  been  done  there  in  compliance  with  his  request ;  and 
that  he  will  do  me  the  justice  with  you  to  bear  testimony 
that  he  found  me  disposed  to  help  him  what  I  could.  It 
would  have  been  agreeable  to  my  inclinations  to  have  had 
more  of  his  company.  But  the  hurry  of  his  affairs  and 
haste  to  return  to  you,  have  been  a  bar  to  that  satisfaction. 
As  to  his  going  to  Oxford,  he  mentioned  it  not  to  me,  and 
indeed  I  declined  entering  into  it  with  him,  for  that  I  have 
very  little  acquaintance  left  in  the  University,  and  accord 
ingly  had  little  prospect  of  being  instrumental  in  getting 
him  a  degree  there,  had  he  attempted  it. 

I  lament  the  vexations  you  have  had  by  means  of  that 
strange  fellow  Whitefield,  and  his  successors.  But  as  I  find 
by  you  that  the  Church  has  not  in  the  main  suffered  so 
much  as  might  have  been  apprehended,  and  was  designed 
by  those  who  maliciously  set  them  to  work,  one  has  reason 


OF   SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  107 

to  be  content  and  to  thank  God  that  things  are  no  worse. 
And  I  have  the  pleasure  to  think  that  among  my  friends  in 
your  parts,  there  are  men  capable  of  dealing  with  them  so 
as  to  stop  their  progress,  if  not  to  bring  good  out  of  evil. 
I  heartily  pray  that  your  endeavors  may  have  that  effect, 
the  rather  because  the  Society  is  very  little  in  a  condition 
to  send  you  more  fellow-helpers  at  present,  however  your 
occasions  may  require  more.  That  they  have  added  one 
in  Mr.  Caner  1  I  am  very  glad,  as  I  see  in  him  all  good  dis 
positions  to  answer  the  ends  of  his  mission.  My  wife  re 
turns  her  compliments  to  you  and  yours,  and  I  am  with  grat 
itude,  Sir, 

Your  affectionate  friend  and  servant, 

FK.  ASTKY. 

ST.  JAMES'S  PLACE,  Feb.  8,  1741-2. 

A  bitter  and  uncharitable  spirit  grew  out  of  the 
religious  enthusiasm  consequent  upon  the  intinerancy 
of  Whitefield.  Divines  of  the  standing  order  were 
divided--  part  sympathizing  with  the  new  light,  and 
part  stoutly  maintaining  a  continuance  in  the  old 
ways  and  opposing  innovations.  The  odium  theolog- 
icum  was  never  more  fierce,  and  any  attempt  to 
restrain  it  proved  unavailing.  Large  numbers  of 
sober  and  thoughtful  persons  in  Connecticut,  dis 
gusted  with  the  extravagances  of  the  time  and  finding 
in  Congregationalism  no  rest  from  strife  and  dissen 
sion,  broke  away  from  their  former  associations,  and 
fled  for  comfort  and  quietness  to  the  bosom  of  the 
Church  of  England.  This  excited  in  an  unhappy  de 
gree  the  displeasure  of  her  opponents,  and  harsh  judg 
ments  and  irritating  reflections  fell  upon  the  mission 
aries  and  upon  the  doctrines  of  the  communion  which 
they  were  appointed  to  teach  and  maintain. 

1  He  was  appointed  a  missionary  to  Norwalk,  Ct.,  and  transferred  to  the  charge  of 
St.  Andrew's  Ch.  Staten  Island,  1745,  upon  the  dismission  of  Mr.  Arnold,  but  died 
of  small-pox  in  New  York,  Dec.  14,  1745. 


108  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Johnson  was  brought  into  sharp  conflict  with  Mr 
Gold,  the  dissenting  minister  in  Stratford,  and  a  cor 
respondence  was  carried  on  between  them  which  in 
volved  very  important  principles  as  well  as  dangerous 
precedents.  It  had  been  said  of  him  that  he  was 
not  converted,  nor  any  of  the  Church  of  England 
people  in  Stratford ;  that  he  was  a  thief,  and  robber 
of  churches,  and  had  no  business  in  the  place  ;  that 
his  church  doors  stood  open  to  all  mischief  and  wick 
edness,  and  other  words  of  like  import,  which  could 
only  be  uttered  in  the  heats  of  angry  passion  or  re 
ligious  excitement.  He  was  not  willing  to  rest  under 
these  charges  without  calling  the  author  to  account, 
and  so  he  addressed  him  a  letter,  which  speaks  for 
itself,  dated, — 

July  6,  1741. 

SIR,  —  ....  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  write  a  few  lines  to 
you,  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  meekness,  on  this  subject.  And 
I  assure  you  I  am  nothing  exasperated  at  these  hard  censures, 
much  less  will  I  return  them  upon  you.  No  Sir !  God  for 
bid  I  should  censure  you  as  you  censure  me  !  I  have  not 
so  learned  Christ !  I  will  rather  use  the  words  of  my  dear 
Saviour  concerning  those  that  censure  so,  and  say,  "  Father, 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

As  to  my  having  no  business  here,  I  will  only  say  that 
to  me  it  appears  most  evident  that  I  have  as  much  business 
here  at  least  as  you  have,  —  being  appointed  by  a  Society 
in  England  incorporated  by  Royal  Charter  to  provide  min 
isters  for  the  Church  people  in  America  ;  nor  does  his  Maj 
esty  allow  of  any  establishment  here,  exclusive  of  the  Church, 
much  less  of  anything  that  should  preclude  the  Society  he 
has  incorporated  from  providing  and  sending  ministers  to 
the  Church  people  in  these  countries.  And  as  to  my  being 
a  robber  of  churches,  I  appeal  to  God  and  all  his  people, 
of  both  denominations,  whether  I  have  ever  uncharitably 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  109 

censured  you,  or  said  or  done  anything  to  disaffect  or  disunite 
your  people  from  you,  as  on  many  occasions  I  might  have 
done ;  on  the  other  hand,  whether  I  have  not  on  all  occasions 
put  people  upon  making  the  kindest  constructions  possible 
upon  your  proceedings,  and  whether  there  has  ever  been 
anything  in  mine  or  my  people's  conduct  that  could  be 
justly  interpreted  to  savor  of  spite  or  malice,  though  we 
have  met  with  much  of  it  from  some  of  our  neighbors. 

If  any  of  your  people  have  left  you,  I  appeal  to  them 
whether  it  has  been  owing  to  any  insinuations  of  mine,  and 
whether  it  has  not  been  many  times  owing  to  your  own 
conducting  otherwise  than  in  prudence  you  might  have  done, 
that  they  have  been  led  to  inquire,  and  upon  inquiring  to 
conform  to  this  Church.  And  pray  why  have  not  Dissent 
ers  here  as  much  liberty  to  go  to  church,  if  they  see  good 
reason  for  it  (as  they  will  soon  do  if  they  seriously  inquire), 
as  Church  people  to  go  to  meeting  if  they  see  fit,  as  some 
have  done,  without  my  charging  you  so  highly  ?  In  short, 
all  I  have  done  which  could  be  the  occasion  of  any  people 
leaving  you,  has  been  to  vindicate  our  best  of  churches  from 
the  injurious  misrepresentations  she  has  labored  under  from 
you  and  others  ;  and  this  it  was  my  bounden  duty  to  do. 
And  indeed  I  shall  think  myself  obliged  in  conscience  to 
take  yet  more  pains  with  Dissenters  as  well  as  Church  people 
than  I  have  ever  yet  done,  if  I  see  them  in  danger  of  being 
misled  by  doctrines  so  contrary  to  the  very  truth  and  spirit 
of  the  Gospel  as  have  lately  been  preached  among  us  up 
and  down  in  this  country. 

And  as  to  my  Church  being  open  to  all  wickedness,  I  ap 
peal  to  God  and  all  that  know  me  and  my  proceedings 
whether  I  have  not  as  constantly  borne  witness  against  all 
kinds  of  wickedness  as  you  have,  and  been  as  far  from  pat 
ronizing  it  as  you  have  been,  and  must  think  my  people  are 
generally  as  serious  and  virtuous  as  yours.  And  lastly  as 
to  your  censuring  me  and  my  people  as  being  unconverted, 
etc.,  I  will  only  beg  you  to  consider  whether  you  act  the 
truly  Christian  part  in  thus  endeavoring  to  disaffect  my  peo- 


110  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

pie  towards  my  ministrations,  and  weaken  and  render  abor 
tive  my  endeavors  for  the  good  of  their  souls,  when  I  know 
not  that  I  have  given  you  any  occasion  to  judge  me  uncon 
verted,  —  much  less  to  set  me  out  in  such  a  formidable 
light  to  them.  However,  I  leave  these  things,  Sir,  to  your  se 
rious  consideration,  and  beg  you  will  either  take  an  opportu 
nity  to  converse  with  me  where  and  when  you  please,  or 
rather  return  me  a  few  lines,  wherein  (as  you  have  judged 
me  unconverted,  etc.)  I  entreat  you  will  plainly  give  me  your 
reasons  why  you  think  me  so ;  for  as  bad  as  I  am,  I  hope  I 
am  open  to  conviction,  and  earnestly  desirous  not  to  be  mis 
taken  in  an  affair  of  so  great  importance,  and  the  rather 
because  I  have  not  only  my  own,  but  many  other  souls  to 
answer  for,  whom  I  shall  doubtless  mislead  if  I  am  misled 
myself.  In  compassion,  therefore,  to  them  and  me,  pray  be 
so  kind  as  to  give  us  your  reasons  why  you  think  us  in  such 
a  deplorable  condition. 

In  hopes  of  which  I  remain,  Sir,  your  real  well-wisher  and 
humble  servant,  S.  J. 

Replies  and  rejoinders  followed  in  quick  succes 
sion,  and  though  Mr.  Gold  denied  having  used  the 
severe  language  attributed  to  him,  yet  he  appears  to 
have  retained  his  uncharitable  feelings,  and  to  have 
been  as  far  as  ever  from  understanding  the  true 
teachings  and  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England. 
His  last  letter  to  Johnson  should  be  quoted,  if  for  no 
other  reason,  at  least  to  show  the  spirit  which  pos 
sessed  the  most  ardent  and  enthusiastic  followers  of 
Whitefield  :  - 

SIR,  —  I  don't  wonder  that  a  man  is  not  afraid  of  sin 
ning  that  believes  he  has  power  in  himself  to  repent  when 
ever  he  pleases,  nor  is  it  strange  for  one  who  dares  to  utter 
falsehoods  of  others  to  be  ready  at  any  time  to  confirm  them 
with  the  solemnity  of  an  oath,  —  especially  since  he  adheres 
to  a  minister  whom  he  believes  has  power  to  wash  him  from 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  Ill 

all  his  sins  by  a  full  and  final  absolution  upon  his  saying  he 
is  sorry  for  them,  etc.  ;  and  as  for  the  pleas  which  you  make 
for  Col.  Lewis,  and  others  that  have  broke  away  disorderly 
from  our  Church,  I  think  there's  neither  weight  nor  truth  in 
them  ;  nor  do  I  believe  such  poor  shifts  will  stand  them  nor 
you  in  any  stead  in  the  awful  day  of  account ;  and  as  for 
your  saying  that  as  bad  as  you  are  yet  you  lie  open  to  convic 
tion,  —  for  my  part  I  find  no  reason  to  think  you  do,  seeing 
you  are  so  free  and  full  in  denying  plain  matters  of  fact ; 
and  as  for  your  notion  about  charity  from  that  1  Cor. 
xiii.,  my  opinion  is  that  a  man  may  abound  with  love  to  God 
and  man,  and  yet  bear  testimony  against  disorderly  walkers, 
without  being  in  the  least  guilty  of  the  want  of  charity  to 
wards  you.  What !  must  a  man  be  judged  uncharitable 
because  he  don't  think  well  nor  uphold  the  willful  miscar 
riages  and  evil  doings  of  others  ?  This  is  surely  a  perverse 
interpretation  of  the  Apostle's  meaning.  I  don't  think  it 
worth  my  while  to  say  anything  further  in  the  affair,  and  as 
you  began  the  controversy  against  rule  or  justice,  so  I  hope 
modesty  will  induce  you  to  desist ;  and  do  assure  you  that 
if  you  see  cause  to  make  any  more  replies,  my  purpose  is, 
without  reading  of  them,  to  put  them  under  the  pot  among 
my  other  thorns  and  there  let  one  flame  quench  the  matter. 
These,  Sir,  from  your  sincere  friend  and  servant  in  all  things 
lawful  and  laudable,  HEZ.  GOLD. 

STRATFORD,  July  21,  1741. 

Johnson  waited  ten  days,  and  then  concluded  to 
"  venture  the  sacrifice  of  one  letter  more,"  in  vindi 
cation  of  himself  and  his  people.  He  would  not 
bear  the  imputation  of  having  opened  a  controversy 
thus  closed  upon  him,  but  he  was  chiefly  anxious,  for 
the  sake  of  the  truth,  to  disabuse  the  mind  of  his 
neighbor  of  the  idea  that  the  Church  of  England 
holds  and  teaches  that  a  man  has  power  in  himself 
to  repent  when  he  pleases,  and  that  the  minister  has 


]]2  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

power  to  wash  him  from  all  his  sins  by  a  full  and 
final  absolution  upon  his  only  saying  he  is  sorry  for 
them.  These  two  propositions  he  regarded  as  so 
false  and  mischievous  to  the  souls  of  men,  that  if  the 
Church  taught  or  practiced  according  to  them  he 
owned  he  would  "  abhor  and  fly  from  her  as  from  the 
face  of  a  serpent."  "  As  our  absolution,"  he  added, 
"  is  nothing  else  but  the  declaration  of  God's  pardon 
to  all  true  penitents,  so  we  hold  no  absolution  in  any 
other  sense  than  you  do  yourself.  Pray,  Sir,  where 
did  you  learn  these  dreadful  notions  of  the  Church  ? 
Have  you  lived  nigh  twenty  years  so  near  the  Church 
and  all  this  while  understood  us  no  better  ?  " 

He  wrote  to  Dr.  Bearcroft,  the  Secretary  of  the  So 
ciety,  in  March,  1742,  that  the  raging  enthusiam  in 
this  country  was  "  like  a  kind  of  epidemical  frenzy," 
and  in  order  to  prevent  mischief  and  take  advantage 
of  the  popular  excitement,  the  clergy  were  obliged 
to  be  continually  riding  and  preaching.  He  himself 
had  scarcely  failed  all  the  previous  winter  to  officiate 
three  times,  and  frequently  six  times  in  a  week,  go 
ing  to  different  parts  of  the  Colony  and  directing  the 
minds  of  people  to  the  true  plan  of  salvation  and  the 
Scriptural  doctrines  of  the  Church.  While  he  was 
thus  fulfilling  his  ministerial  duty  with  a  diligence 
and  prudence  equaled  only  by  his  learning  and  firm 
ness,  a  complaint  was  brought  against  him  which  is 
best  explained  in  the  following  note  from  the  Rev. 
Roger  Price,  the  Commissary  for  all  New  England, 
holding  his  office  under  the  appointment  of  the  Bishop 
of  London  :  — 

REV.  SlE,  —  Mr.  Morris  l  made  a  complaint  to  me  and 

1  The  Rev.  Theophilus  Morris  —  an  Englishman   by  hirth  —  who  succeeded  Mr 
Arnold  at  West  Haven  as  an  itinerant  missionary. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  113 

the  clergy  convened  at  Boston  relating  to  your  going  to  the 
dissenting  meeting,  and  suffering  your  son  to  do  the  same, 
which  gave  some  uneasiness  to  your  brethren.  I  hope  your 
prudence  will  always  direct  you  to  avoid  anything  that  may 
show  such  a  favorable  disposition  towards  the  separation  as 
will  obstruct  the  growth  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 

I  am  your  affectionate  brother  and  humble  servant, 

ROG.  PBICE. 

BOSTON,  June  18,  1742. 

Johnson  lost  no  time  in  replying  to  the  reproof 
thus  administered,  and  the  answer  reveals  the  relig 
ious  habits  of  his  elder  son,  who  was  then  a  student 
in  Yale  College  :  — 

July  5,  1 742. 

REV.  SIR,  — I  received  yours  of  the  18th  of  June,  and  do 
take  in  good  part  and  with  humble  submission  the  tender 
chastisement  which  you  and  my  brethren  have  thought  fit 
to  send  me  relating  to  my  going  myself  and  permitting  my 
son  to  go  to  meeting. 

As  to  myself,  I  cannot  think  the  charge  is  at  all  just,  for 
I  never  have  been  to  meeting  since  the  last  convention  at 
Rhode  Island  that  could  with  any  propriety  bear  that  name. 
All  the  foundation  of  Mr.  Morris'  complaint  is  only  this, 
that  on  Commencement  night,  when  Davenport  was  raving 
among  the  people  there,  Mr.  Wetmore  and  I  went  in  the 
dark,  no  mortal  knowing  us  but  our  own  company  ;  and  stood 
at  the  edge  of  the  crowd  and  heard  him  rave  about  five  min 
utes,  and  then  went  about  our  business  ;  this  I  humbly  con 
ceive  could  not  be  called  going  to  meeting  any  more  than  a 
visit  to  Bedlam,  —  for  we  heard  no  prayers  nor  anything 
that  could  be  called  preaching,  any  more  than  the  ravings 
of  a  man  distracted. 

As  to  my  son,  I  am  and  so  is  he,  as  far  as  you  can  be- 
from  approving  his  going  to  meeting,  and  would  by  no 
means  permit  it,  if  it  were  possible  to  avoid  it  consistently 
with  his  having  a  public  education.  But  this  is  what  [ 
must  entirely  deny  him,  or  not  forbid  him  once  in  a  while  to 


114  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

go  to  meeting,  and  of  two  evils  I  think  it  my  duty  to  choose 
the  least.  He  comes  home  once  in  a  fortnight  or  three  weeks, 
and  when  Mr.  Morris  goes  to  West-side,  he  hears  him,  so 
that  he  goes  to  meeting  as  little  as  possible.  And  in  this 
case  I  do  not  think  it  the  unpardonable  sin,  though  I  have 
as  little  opinion  of  the  meeting  as  anybody  can  reasonably 
have. 

I  look  upon  the  worst  part  of  going  to  meeting  to  be,  be 
ing  present  and  joining  with  extempore  prayers,  and  yet  this 
is  what  Dr.  Cutler  and  Mr.  Usher  permitted  their  sons  to  do 
every  day  in  the  College  Hall  [Harvard],  without  being  ever 
found  fault  with.  Upon  the  whole  I  can  truly  say,  and  thank 
God  for  it,  my  prudence  has  always  directed  me  and  always 
shall,  to  avoid  anything  that  could  show  the  least  favora 
ble  disposition  towards  the  separation  as  such,  or  to  obstruct 
the  growth  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  So  far  from  this,  that 
I  believe  I  may  say  without  vanity  that  I  have  labored  as 
faithfully,  and  with  as  good  success,  as  any  of  my  brethren 
in  promoting  that  cause.  I  came  alone  into  this  colony  a  few 
years  ago,  when  there  were  but  70  or  80  adult  Church  people 
in  the  whole  Government,  and  now  there  are  above  2000  ; 
there  are  ten  churches  actually  built  and  three  more  building, 
and  seven  settled  in  the  ministry.  I  have  nigh  150  com 
municants,  of  whom  there  wanted  but  four  of  fourscore  to 
gether  and  received  the  Communion  last  Sunday,  and  my 
people  are  as  regular  and  rubrical  in  our  worship  as  any 
congregation  that  I  know  of.  Can  it  then  be  supposed  that 
I  have  obstructed  our  growth  ?  In  short,  I  have  labored, 
and  studied,  and  wrote,  and  rid,  and  preached,  and  pleaded, 
and  lived  all  that  was  in  my  power  to  promote  the  growth  of 
the  best  of  churches.  I  have  neither  farming  nor  merchan 
dise,  nor  do  I  suffer  any  other  pursuit  of  either  pleasure  or 
profit  to  embarrass  or  hinder  me  in  promoting  the  growth 
of  the  Church,  which  is  the  single  point  that  I  have  in  view. 
If  it  would  not  savor  of  something  like  vanity,  which  I  hope 
may  be  excused  on  this  occasion,  I  might  almost  venture 
to  say  I  have  labored  more  abundantly  than  they  all,  and  yet 


OF   SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  115 

I  must,  it  seems,  be,  as  it  were,  singled  out  by  my  brethren 
to  be  censured  as  one  from  whom  there  is  danger  appre 
hended  of  obstructing  the  growth  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 
No,  Sir ;  I  trust  the  danger  is  not  from  any  conduct  of  mine, 
but  from  that  spirit  of  indolence  and  negligence,  of  bigotry 
and  bitterness,  which  has  called  my  conduct  in  question,  and 
let  him  that  is  without  fault,  or  has  less  fault  than  I,  cast 
the  first  stone.  For  God's  sake,  Sir,  is  there  nothing  but 
not  forbidding  a  son  to  go  to  meeting  when  he  can't  help  it 
that  can  obstruct  the  Church  ?  Could  you  find  nothing 
worse  than  this  to  except  against  in  the  conduct  of  any  of 
our  brethren  ?  I  fear  you  might  ;  if  not,  God  be  praised. 
And  particularly,  my  brother  Morris,  whom  I  have  ever  used 
in  the  best  and  kindest  manner,  I  must  think  had,  of  all  men, 
the  least  reason  to  complain,  and  I  fear  he  has  much  more 
deserved  the  censure  of  his  brethren  for  his  violent  passion, 
rashness,  and  inconsistency  in  his  conversation,  and  his  neg 
lecting  his  people  again  and  again  by  such  long  and  needless 
journeys,  especially  at  this  important  juncture.  And  I  believe 
he  had  better  have  gone  twenty  times  to  meeting,  than  once 
have  shown  such  a  spirit  of  ingratitude  and  malevolence*as 
he  has  done.  But  I  heartily  pity  and  forgive  him,  and  pray 
that  he,  as  well  as  I  and  all  the  rest  of  us,  may  live  to  better 
purpose  than  to  bring  our  order  into  contempt,  and  to  dis 
grace  the  best  Church  and  religion  in  the  world. 

I  am,  Rev.  Sir, 
Your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

This  apology  or  explanation,  which  Johnson  wished 
the  Commissary  to  communicate  to  as  many  of  the 
brethren  as  he  had  opportunity,  was  the  end  of  the 
matter,  except  that  he  gently  remonstrated  with  Mr. 
Morris,  and  asked  what  he  meant  by  raising  such  a 
"  clamor  against  him  both  at  New  York  and  Boston." 
He  challenged  further  scrutiny  of  his  conduct,  and 
was  willing  the  complaint  should  be  carried  before 


116  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

the  Bp.  of  London  and  the  Venerable  Society ;  but 
Mr.  Morris  had  misapprehended  his  intentions,  and 
finding  himself  unable,  from  the  peculiarities  of  his 
temperament,  to  secure  a  better  living  in  the  Colony, 
he  soon  withdrew  and  returned  to  England. 

The  clergy  of  Connecticut  felt  the  want  of  an 
overseer  in  these  critical  times  more  than  ever,  and 
as  they  had  been  repeatedly  refused  a  Bishop,  they 
asked  for  a  Commissary  to  reside  among  them,  and 
for  this  purpose  sent  a  formal  petition  to  the  Bishop 
of  London.  Their  distance  from  Boston  was  such  as  to 
render  it  inconvenient,  if  not  impracticable,  to  attend 
the  Conventions  there,  and  the  growth  of  the  Church 
in  the  Colony  had  been  so  great  that  they  anticipated 
many  advantages  to  come  from  the  appointment. 
They  all  signed  or  supported  the  petition  except  Mr. 
Morris.  Of  their  own  free  will,  and  without  any  in 
fluence  on  his  part,  they  presumed  to  mention  for 
the  office  the  Rev.  Mr.  Johnson  of  Stratford,  as  a  per 
son  in  whose  ability,  virtue,  and  integrity  they  had 
full  confidence.  But  the  Bishop  of  London  was  un 
willing  to  revoke  or  change  any  part  of  the  commis 
sion  which  he  had  granted  to  Mr.  Price  without  his 
consent,  or  until  his  death  or  resignation,  and  so 
no  Commissary  for  Connecticut  was  appointed.  The 
petition  was  renewed  six  years  later  to  Sherlock, 
then  Bishop  of  London,  and  the  successor  of  Gibson ; 
but  he  was  so  persuaded  of  his  inability  to  do  jus 
tice  to  the  Church  in  the  American  Colonies,  and  so 
bent  on  the  establishment  of  one  or  two  Bishops  to 
reside  in  proper  parts  of  them,  and  to  "  have  the  con 
duct  and  direction  of  the  whole,"  that  he  declined 
to  take  a  patent  from  the  crown  for  the  exercise  of 


OF    SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  117 

ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  only  consented  to  or 
dain  candidates  and  supervise  the  clergy  till  a  better 
provision  could  be  made.  "  I  should  be  tempted," 
said  he  "  to  throw  off  all  this  care  quite,  were  it  not 
for  the  sake  of  preserving  even  the  appearance  of  an 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  plantations."  But  Johnson 
without  the  appointment  of  Commissary  continued  to 
be  the  prudent  guide  and  adviser  of  his  brethren,  and 
the  calm  watcher  of  all  movements  that  related  to  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  the  Church,  not  only  in  New 
England  but  throughout  the  country. 

It  was  a  great  gratification  to  him  to  receive  from 
the  University  of  Oxford  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity,  which  was  conferred  upon  him  by  diploma 
February,  1743.  Twenty  years  before,  when  he  vis 
ited  that  ancient  seat  of  learning,  his  merits  had 
been  recognized,  and  the  hope  expressed  that  by  his 
ministry  the  English  Church  might  be  revived  on  this 
Continent :  aliam  et  eandem  olim  nascituram  Eccle- 
siam  Anglicanam.  The  hope  had  been  partly  fulfilled, 
and  the  second  and  higher  distinction,  due  to  his 
learning  and  his  labors,  was  spoken  of  by  the  Yice- 
Chancellor,  Dr.  Hodges,  when  he  resigned  his  office,  as 
one  of  the  most  agreeable  things  that  had  been  done 
during  his  administration.  It  was  stated  in  the  Di 
ploma,  ut,  incredibili  Ecclesice  incremento  summam  sui 
expectationem  sustinuerit  plane  et  superaverit.  John 
son  thanked  his  friends,  particularly  Dr.  Astry,  and 
Dr.  Seeker  Bishop  of  Oxford,  for  their  agency  in 
the  matter,  and  wrote  to  his  son  at  Yale  College, 
April  23,  1744,  that  he  might  share  in  the  joy  of  his 
success :  "  I  have  the  pleasure  to  let  you  know  that 
my  good  friend  Dr.  Astry  hath  accomplished  for  me 


118  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

what  he  so  kindly  undertook.  Dr.  Gardiner,  lately 
returned  from  England,  writes  to  me  that  he  has 
brought  my  Diploma.  I  hope  you,  as  well  as  I,  shall 
consider  this  great  honor,  which  the  University  of 
Oxford  has  done  me,  as  a  fresh  motive  to  the  use  of 
diligence  in  well-doing,  that  we  may  deserve  the  no 
tice  you  see  they  are  so  ready  to  take  of  those  that 
faithfully  endeavor  to  have  true  merit/ ' 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


INCREASE  OF  HIS  PARISH  AND  NEW  CHURCH  AT  STRATFORD  ; 
MORE  CONTROVERSY;  SYSTEM  OF  MORALITY;  STUDY  OF  HE 
BREW,  AND  HUTCHINSON'S  PRINCIPLES  ;  PHILOSOPHICAL 
CORRESPONDENCE  ;  EDUCATION  OF  SONS,  AND  LETTERS  TO 

THE    ELDER  ;      PROJECT     OF     A    COLLEGE     AT     PHILADELPHIA, 
AND    JOHNSON    INVITED    TO    ITS    CHARGE. 

A.  D.  1743-1750. 

IT  was  no  longer  doubtful  that  the  movement  to 
wards  the  Church,  in  consequence  of  the  extravagan 
cies  of  Whitefield  and  his  followers,  was  an  earnest  and 
important  one.  Many  things  conspired  to  give  it 
strength,  and  the  growth  of  the  parishes  in  Connec 
ticut  necessitated  the  erection  of  larger  houses  of 
worship  to  accommodate  the  congregations.  This 
was  the  case  at  Stratford,  where  there  had  been  an 
accession  of  several  of  the  most  influential  families 
of  the  place  ;  and  Johnson  was  much  occupied  in 
1743  with  preparations  to  build  a  new  edifice  suited 
to  the  wants  of  the  people.  Money  was  scarce  in 
those  days,  and  contributions  of  labor,  time,  timber, 
and  other  material  were  accepted  in  its  place.  The 
subscription  of  the  Rector  was  for  a  bell,  and  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  new  church  opened, 
though  not  completed  on  the  8th  of  July  1744,  when 
he  preached  a  sermon  from  Psalms  xxvi.  8,  on  "  the 
great  duty  of  loving  and  delighting  in  the  public 
worship  of  God."  The  discourse  was  afterwards 
printed,  with  an  appendix  containing  prayers  for  use 


120  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

in  the  family  and  closet.  In  the  same  year  a  church 
was  begun  at  Rip  ton  (now  Huntington),  then  a  part 
of  the  town  of  Stratford  and  under  his  pastoral  care, 
and  it  was  this  "  growing  disposition  among  the  peo 
ple  in  many  places  to  forsake  the  tenets  of  enthusiasm 
and  confusion,"  that  added  to  the  labors  of  Johnson, 
and  required  his  unceasing  ministrations.  Probably 
no  period  of  his  life  was  filled  with  greater  anxiety 
than  that  which  immediately  followed  the  itinerancy 
of  Whitefield,  and  witnessed  the  results  of  his  disor 
derly  proceedings. 

When  the  spirit  that  was  rampant  in  the  land  placed 
all  in  predestination  and  mere  sovereignty,  and  denied 
that  there  are  any  promises  to  our  prayers  and  en 
deavors,  another  controversy  arose  which  engaged  his 
own  practiced  pen  and  that  of  Jonathan  Dickinson.1 
He  published  towards  the  end  of  1744  a  pamphlet  of 
thirty-two  pages,  entitled  "  A  Letter  from  Aristocles  to 
Authades  concerning  the  sovereignty  and  the  prom 
ises  of  God,"  and  said  in  his  advertisement  that  what 
prevailed  on  him  to  consent  to  its  publication  "  was  a 
sincere  and  firm  persuasion,  that  it  is  really  the  cause 
of  God  and  his  Christ  that  I  here  plead,  and  that  the 
eternal  interest  of  the  souls  of  men  is  very  nearly  con 
cerned  in  it.  For  it  is  manifest  to  me,  that  some 
notions  have  of  late  been  propagated  and  inculcated 

1  So  early  as  1725,  one  of  his  parishioners  was  sharply  attacked  by  this  same  gen 
tleman,  a  Presbyterian  divine  of  Elizabethtown,  N.  J.,  upon  the  subject  of  Episco 
pacy,  and  not  being  able  to  cope  with  his  antagonist,  Johnson  sketched,  at  his  request, 
the  chief  arguments  in  its  favor  which  the  parishioner  sent  in  his  own  name  to  Mr. 
Dickinson  and  soon  had  an  answer.  To  this  a  reply  was  furnished  him,  and  some 
time  after,  Mr.  Dickinson  enlarged  and  printed  his  own  papers  in  the  dispute,  which 
involved  the  necessity  of  publishing  what  had  been  written  on  the  other  side  with 
the  name  of  the  real  author.  "  On  this  occasion,  Mr.  Foxcroft,  of  Boston,  took  up 
their  cause  "  against  the  Church,  "  and  wrote  more  largely,  to  whom  Mr.  Johnson  re- 
olied  but  was  not  answered." 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  121 

in  this  country,  that  are  equally  destructive  to  the 
right  belief  both  of  God  and  the  Gospel.  I  have,  in 
deed,  that  charity  for  those  that  have  done  it  that  I 
do  not  believe  they  are  sensible  of  these  fatal  conse 
quences  of  what  they  teach,  though  I  very  much 
wonder  they  are  not  aware  of  them." 

Johnson  would  not  be  understood  to  aim  at  under 
mining  any  of  the  soul-humbling  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel,  for  he  insisted  that  his  way  of  explaining  the 
Divine  Sovereignty  and  promises  was  not  a  distortion 
of  the  Scriptures  ;  but  entirely  agreeable  to  them,  and 
such  as  unprejudiced  men  of  plain  common  sense  might 
accept  and  be  saved  with  an  everlasting  salvation.  It 
was  a  controversy,  as  one  of  the  pamphlets  of  the 
day  characterized  it,  between  a  Calvinist  and  a  be 
liever  of  mere  primitive  Christianity;  and  Mr.  Dick 
inson  published  a  first  and  second  "  Vindication  of 
God's  Sovereign  free  grace,"  —  the  last  appearing 
just  before  his  death  ;  but  Dr.  Johnson  had  already 
issued  another  letter  in  defense  of  "  Aristocles  to  Au- 
thades," 1  and  closed  it  thus :  "  I  will  add  no  more 
but  my  earnest  wishes  that  we  may,  on  all  sides,  be 
above  all  things  careful,  for  the  sake  of  the  love  of 
God,  which  is  my  greatest  motive  in  writing,  that  we 
do  by  no  means  advance  or  inculcate  any  notions  or 
doctrines  that  may  reflect  dishonor  upon  the  best  of 
Beings,  and  upon  the  Gospel  of  his  grace,  or  be  any 
ways  detrimental  to  any  of  the  souls  which  He  hath 
made." 

In  a  letter  to  a  friend,  he  spoke  with  the  warmest 
feelings  against  those  who  represented  the  Deity  as 

1  Mr.  Dickinson,  in  his  first  Vindication,  interpreted  these  names  to  represent  John- 
Bon,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cooke  of  Stratfield,  who  had  printed  a  sermon  in  favor  of  his 
own  side. 


122  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

consigning  some  persons  to  everlasting  happiness  and 
others  to  everlasting  misery,  by  an  unconditional  de 
cree.  "  In  truth,  if  it  were  possible,  I  would  rather 
believe  there  is  no  God  than  to  imagine  Him  to  be 
such  a  Being  as  these  teachers  not  only  represent 
Him,  but  insist  He  is ;  and  you  must  believe  so  too 
upon  the  pain  of  damnation."  1 

"  These  controversies "  says  Johnson  in  his  auto 
biography,  "  ended  in  1744,"  but  he  mistook  his  own 
dates  ;  for  the  pamphlets,  which  were  all  printed  at 
Boston,  show  that  they  were  rather  begun  at  this 
time,  and  carried  on  for  the  next  two  years  by  the 
principals,  and  then  Mr.  Beach  of  Newtown  and  "  Mr. 
Jedediah  Mills,  pastor  of  a  church  at  Kipton,"  en 
gaged  in  the  contest  and  lengthened  it  out  nearly  a 
lustrum. 

Mills  was  an  enthusiastic  follower  of  Whitefield, 
and  had  broken  a  lance  with  Johnson,  on  original 
sin,  several  years  before,  by  writing  him  letters  and 
calling  in  question  his  belief  and  doctrinal  teachings. 
In  one  of  his  replies,  dated  November,  1741,  Johnson 
said  :  "  You  talked  about  Dr.  Clarke,  but  I  never 
undertook  to  justify  his  doctrine  of  original  sin,  which 
I  even  allowed  to  be  expressed  too  loosely  and  un 
guardedly  :  only  I  was  willing  to  put  a  more  favor 
able  construction  on  it  than  you  did;  nor  do  I  re 
member  I  ever  advised  Darby  people  to  read  his  ser 
mons  in  public,  but  I  am  sure  I  advised  them  not  to 
do  it,  and  lent  them  another  book  to  read  that  they 
might  not  read  his." 

With  a  view  of  counteracting  the  evil  effects  of  the 
spirit  of  the  times,  Johnson  prepared  and  published  in 

2  Letter  to  C.  Colden,  April  22,  1746. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  123 

1746  a  "  System  of  Morality/'  in  two  parts  ;  one  treat 
ing  of  Ethics  in  a  speculative  aspect,  and  the  other  of 
the  practical  duties  that  result  from  established  truths.1 
It  was  a  useful  and  seasonable  work,  and  received  the 
approbation  of  sober  and  thoughtful  men.  The  fol 
lowing  letter  was  written  by  one  who,  though  he  had 
no  sympathy  with  him  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  yet 
respected  his  learning,  and  was  himself,  in  his  day,  a 
guiding  mind  among  the  theologians  of  New  Eng 
land  :  — 

REV.  SIB,  — I  have  read  your  new  "  System  of  Morality  " 
with  a  pleasure  which  I  cannot  easily  express.  You  have 
honored  our  country  by  this  production  of  the  most  perfect 
piece  of  Ethics,  and  in  the  best  form,  that  I  have  seen  in 
any  language,  and  I  like  it  most  in  our  own.  I  hope  the 
tutors  in  our  academies  may  even  with  the  greater  advan 
tage  read  it  to  their  pupils,  show  them  the  connection  and 
strength  of  every  part  of  it,  and  the  force  with  which  it 
should  enter  their  souls  and  abide  there.  For  I  think  it 
is  strongly  adapted  to  inform  the  mind  and  affect  the  heart ; 
and  under  the  blessing  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  form  both  into 
all  the  emotions  of  virtue  and  piety,  in  its  connection  with 
and  submission  to  "the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  the  revelation 
of  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness 
to  us  sinners. 

1  In  1743,  a  small  18mo  volume  was  published,  entitled  An  Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  Philosophy,  exhibiting  a  general  view  of  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  with  a 
"  Catalogue  of  the  most  valuable  books  in  the  Library  of  Yale  College,  disposed 
under  proper  heads."  It  was  written  by  Johnson  "for  young  men  at  the  College," 
and  was  the  second  edition  enlarged,  the  first  having  been  published  at  London  in 
the  Republic  of  Letters  for  May,  1731.  At  the  end  of  what  must  have  been  the 
original  draught,  dated  October  5,  1730,  he  made  a  note:  "  This  system  did  not 
please  me  well  and  I  drew  another."  The  Catalogue  was  prepared  by  Rector  Clap, 
and  in  his  advertisement,  addressed  to  the  students,  he  said:  "  The  Introduction  to 
Philosophy  will  give  you  a  general  idea  or  scheme  of  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  and 
the  several  things  which  are  to  be  known  and  learnt;  and  the  Catalogue  will  direct 
you  to  many  of  the  best  books  to  be  read,  in  order  to  obtain  the  knowledge  of  them. 
And  I  would  advise  you,  my  pupils,  to  pursue  a  regular  course  of  Academical  studies 
in  some  measure  according  to  the  order  of  this  Catalogue." 


124  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Yet,  sir,  I  also  freely  own  to  you  that  your  words,  page 
64,  "  of  God's  sending  a  glorious  person  under  the  character 
of  his  own  Son,  who  had  an  inexpressible  glory  with  Him 
before  the  world  was  ; "  although  enforced  by  the  following 
Scripture  expressions,  "  the  express  image  of  his  person,  and 
the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwelling  in  Him  bodily  in  his 
incarnate  state  ;  "  seem  not  enough  to  me  in  honor  of  re 
vealed  religion,  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  by  which  it  is,  Sir,  that 
our  reason  is  illuminated  and  raised  to  such  a  gracious  height ; 
as  that  you,  my  honored  brother,  after  the  diligent  study  of 
them  for  many  years,  have  by  their  help  and  the  assistance 
of  the  blessed  Inspirer  of  them  (I  am  willing  to  add),  been 
enabled  to  write  this  correct  and  exalted  book  of  Ethics. 

Your  own  modesty  will  not  permit  you  to  blame  me,  if  I 
freely  say,  that  none  of  the  learned  Heathen  ever  wrote  to 
this  height,  with  like  perspicuity,  method,  and  enforcement 
on  conscience.  It  is  the  Christian  Divine,  after  a  diligent 
search  into  the  religion  of  Jesus,  together  with  what  the 
masters  of  morality  had  wrote  before  his  manifestation  in 
the  flesh,  or  since  that  blessed  day,  who  exhibits  himself  in 
your  treatise.  And  though  I  am  too  much  a  stranger  now 
to  Mr.  Wollaston's  delineation  of  the  Religion  of  Nature  to 
give  my  opinion  of  it,  yet  I  persuade  myself  also  that  his 
performance,  praised  as  it  has  been  by  tjiose  that  I  highly 
esteem,  may  stand  also  much  indebted  to  his  improvements 
by  Christianity. 

Upon  all  Sir,  to  lay  my  whole  intention  before  you  in  this 
latter  part  of  my  letter,  I  request  you  to  consider  whether 
those  words  :  "  a  glorious  person  under  the  character  of  his 
own  Son  in  our  nature,  who  had  an  imperishable  glory  with 
Him  before  the  world  was,"  with  what  follows  of  Scripture 
expressions  in  that  pious  paragraph,  is  sufficient  to  answer 
unto  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal  Godhead  of  Christ,  as  it  is 
explained  to  us  in  the  Athanasian  Creed,  daily  read  in  your 
worshipping  congregations  ? 

This  is  the  defect  that  occurs  to  me  in  the  close  of  your 
excellent  treatise ;  which  yet  I  have  not  observed  to  any  one 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  125 

but  yourself.  And  I  hope,  Sir,  that  this  freedom,  after  the 
high  brotherly  regards  I  have  been  expressing,  will  be  can 
didly  taken  by  you. 

I  ask  your  prayers  for  me  in  my  age  ;  and  wishing  you 
always  the  presence  of  God  with  you  in  your  holy  studies 
and  ministrations, 

I  am,  Rev.  Sir, 

Your  affec.  brother  and  servant, 

BENJ.  COLMAN. 

BOSTON,  June  2,  1746. 

The  answer  was  worthy  of  the  subject  and  of  the 
man :  — 

June  12. 

REV.  SIR,  —  You  needed  not  to  make  any  apology  or 
beseech  my  candor  for  so  very  kind  and  obliging  a  letter  as 
you  did  me  the  favor  to  write  of  the  2d  instant.  The  favor 
able  opinion  you  express  of  that  small  piece  of  morals  I 
wrote,  I  wish  it  would  pretend  to  deserve,  and  I  am  highly 
obliged  to  you  for  the  candor  wherewith  you  read  it,  and  the 
brotherly  kindness  you  express  towards  me. 

But  what  I  am  particularly  obliged  to  you  for  is  that  you 
was  so  good  as  to  point  out  to  me  the  passage  you  mention 
as  what  you  apprehended  liable  to  exception.  This  I  take  as 
a  singular  act  of  friendship,  and  what  the  rather  deserves  my 
thankful  acknowledgment  as  it  comes  from  a  gentleman  of 
your  venerable  age  and  character,  and  one  to  whom  I  had 
never  had  the  honor  of  being  known.  I  apprehend,  therefore, 
that  as  I  had  the  presumption  to  appear  in  public,  your 
kind  aim  was  that  nothing  that  I  offer  should  be  either 
liable  to  misconstruction,  or  of  any  mischievous  tendency  to 
the  disadvantage  of  our  common  faith. 

In  answer,  therefore,  to  your  kind  suggestion,  I  beg  leave 
to  say,  that,  as  I  am  sincerely  tenacious  of  the  Athanasian 
Faith,  so  I  beg  those  expressions  may  not  be  understood  to 
be  inconsistent  with  it,  but  rather  expressive  of  it  as  they 
appear  to  me  to  be,  and  that  you  will  do  me  the  favor  to  as 
sure  any  gentlemen  of  this  who  may  be  apt  to  suspect  me. 


126  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

The  only  reason  of  my  expressing  myself  as  I  did  was,  be 
cause  I  was  not  willing  to  meddle  with  anything  contro 
versial,  and  therefore  chose  to  confine  myself  to  the  language 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  However,  if  it  were  not  too  late, 
I  could  wish  one  word  were  inserted  which  would  put  the 
matter  out  of  all  ambiguity.  I  would  express  it  thus  :  "  Who 
was  truly  God  of  God,  and  had  inexpressible  glory  with  Him 
from  all  Eternity,  before  the  world  was,"  and  I  should  be 
highly  obliged  to  you,  if  you  will  desire  the  printer  (provided 
it  be  not  too  late)  to  insert  those  words,  Was  truly  Crod  of 
G-odfrom  all  Eternity,  in  their  proper  place. 

I  readily  agree  with  you  that  even  such  an  imperfect 
sketch  of  morals  as  this  could  never  have  been  beat  out  with 
out  the  help  of  Revelation,  to  which  no  doubt  but  Mr.  Wol- 
laston  was  also  very  much  beholden ;  and  indeed  I  am  of 
opinion  that  those  noble  pieces  of  Epictetus,  Antoninus,  and 
Hierocles,  though  they  were  not  professed  Christians,  were 
notwithstanding  the  better  for  the  light  which  Christianity 
had  brought  into  the  world,  though  they  had  it  at  second 
hand ;  which  indeed  might  be  the  case  with  Seneca  and 
Tully  before,  and  even  Plato  and  Pythagoras,  who  in  their 
travels  might  pick  up  many  notions  which  originally  came 
from  the  inspired  prophets. 

I  again  repeat  my  humblest  thanks  for  your  kind  letter, 
and  especially  for  your  prayer  for  me  with  which  it  concludes, 
and  beg  the  continuance  of  it ;  and  I  earnestly  pray  to  God 
for  you  that  He  will  be  your  shield  and  the  staff  of  your  age 
while  you  continue  here,  and  your  exceeding  great  reward  in 
a  better  world  hereafter. 

I  am,  Rev.  Sir,  your  most  obliged,  etc. 

S.  J. 

Colman  died  the  next  year,  and  too  soon  to  know 
the  success  of  the  little  work,  whose  author  he  had 
so  gracefully  complimented.  Reference  will  be  made 
to  a  second  edition  of  it  in  a  future  chapter. 

Hebrew  had  been  a  favorite  study  with  Johnson, 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  127 

but  about  this  time,  his  philosophical  and  theological 
readings  led  him  to  take  a  new  interest  in  it  and  to 
refresh  and  improve  his  critical  knowledge.  Lord 
President  Forbes'  "  Thoughts  on  Religion  and  Letter 
to  a  Bishop  "  fell  in  his  way,  and  opened  to  him  a 
scene  of  study  and  inquiry  both  novel  and  interesting. 
He  found  in  this  author  an  abridgment  or  summary 
of  the  works  of  John  Hutchinson,  then  attracting  the 
attention  of  the  learned  world.  These  he  procured 
and  read,  and  considered  again  and  again  with  the 
utmost  care  and  with  the  best  helps  which  he  could 
command  ;  and  "  though  in  many  things,"  to  use  his 
own  words,  "  he  seemed  to  overdo  and  go  into  ex 
tremes,  and  his  language  was  obscure,  yet  no  man  in 
these  last  ages,  ever  appeared  to  have  so  laboriously 
studied,  and  so  thoroughly  understood  the  Hebrew 
language  and  antiquities,  as  Mr.  Hutchinson."  Some 
of  his  translations  were  forced  and  unnatural,  and  his 
criticisms  were  not  all  just.  It  grieved  Johnson  that 
he  should  hurt  his  own  cause  by  censuring  bitterly 
the  great  name  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  and  representing 
him  and  others  as  no  better  than  atheists  who  re 
nounced  Christianity  ;  and  he  could  not  be  pleased 
with  his  harsh  treatment  of  the  Jewish  Rabbis,  what 
ever  defects  in  their  character  might  be  proved.  But 
still  Hutchinson  appeared  to  him  to  be  a  "  prodigious 
genius,"  little  inferior,  if  not  superior  to  Sir  Isaac 
himself,  and  to  have  established  several  very  impor 
tant  philosophical  and  theological  principles.  He 
wrote  to  his  friend  John  Berriman  in  London  to  know 
more  about  him  and  the  estimation  in  which  he  was 
held,  and  the  answer  which  he  received  was  not  very 
flattering  to  his  cultured  mind :  "  Mr.  Hutchinson,  I 


128  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

never  saw  in  my  life  but  once ;  he  had  rather  the  ap 
pearance  of  a  plowman  than  a  philosopher.  He  was 
not  bred  to  learning  ;  but  by  the  leisure  he  enjoyed, 
while  he  was  steward  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  he 
found  means  to  attain  a  good  measure  of  knowledge  in 
the  Hebrew  tongue ;  upon  which  he  became  so  con 
ceited  that  he  thought  nobody  knew  anything  of  the 
matter  but  himself;  and  those  few  that  learned  of  him 
to  be  so  sharpsighted  as  to  see  in  the  Old  Testament 
the  only  true  principles  of  philosophy,  quite  contrary 
to  the  Newtonian,  and  clearer  accounts  of  the  Trinity 
than  are  to  be  found  in  the  New."  l 

Johnson  may  have  had  the  feeling  to  which  Jones 
of  Nay  land  gave  expression  in  the  preface  to  the 
second  edition  of  his  life  of  Bishop  Home,  when, 
speaking  of  the  Hutchinsonian  principles,  he  said  : 
"  These  things  came  down  to  us  under  the  name  of 
John  Hutchinson,  a  character  sui  generis,  such  as  the 
common  forms  of  education  could  never  have  pro 
duced  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  not  to  have  been  well  ex 
plained,  how  and  by  what  means  he  fell  upon  things, 
seemingly  so  new  and  uncommon  ;  but  we  do  not  in 
quire  whose  they  are,  but  what  they  are,  and  what 
they  are  good  for.  If  the  tide  had  brought  them  to 
shore  in  a  trunk,  marked  with  the  initials  J.  H.,  while 
I  was  walking  by  the  sea-side,  I  would  have  taken  them 
up,  and  kept  them  for  use ;  without  being  solicitous 
to  know  what  ship  they  came  out  of,  or  how  far,  and 
how  long  they  had  been  floating  at  the  mercy  of  the 
wind  and  the  waves.  If  they  should  get  from  my 
hands  into  better  hands,  I  should  rejoice ;  being  per 
suaded  they  would  revive  in  others  the  dying  flame 

i  MS.  Letter,  June  19,  1747. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  129 

of  Christian  faith,  as  they  did  in  Bishop  Home  and 
myself." 

A  correspondence,  chiefly  upon  philosophical  sub 
jects,  was  carried  on  for  some  time  between  Johnson 
and  Cadwallader  Golden,  afterwards  Lieutenant-gov 
ernor  of  the  Province  of  New  York.  Golden  was  the 
son  of  a  Scotch  divine,  and  finished  a  course  of  studies 
at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  devoted  himself 
to  medicine  and  mathematics.  While  yet  a  young 
man,  he  emigrated  to  America  and  finally  settled  in 
New  York,  where  he  was  appointed  the  first  surveyor- 
general  of  the  lands  of  the  Colony,  and  at  the  same 
time  master  in  chancery.  His  botanical  and  medical 
essays  were  numerous ;  but  the  work  upon  which  he 
bestowed  the  most  labor  was  first  published  under 
the  title  of  the  "  Cause  of  Gravitation,"  and  then  en 
larged  and  printed  with  the  title  of  the  "Principles 
of  Action  in  Matter,"  to  which  was  added  a  "  Trea 
tise  on  Fluxions."  Among  his  correspondents  were 
such  distinguished  characters  of  the  time  as  Linnaeus, 
Gronovius,  and  Franklin.  His  letters  to  Johnson  are 
full  of  the  principles  involved  in  his  chief  work,  and  in 
one  of  them  he  said :  "  I  am  now  printing  something 
on  the  subject  of  material  agents,  which  I  hope  may 
be  of  use  to  enlarge  our  knowledge  in  moral  philoso 
phy.  I  print  only  so  many  copies  as  may  submit  it  to 
the  examination  of  the  learned.  As  soon  as  it  shall 
be  printed,  it  will  kiss  your  hands  for  that  purpose." 

Johnson  directed  his  attention  to  the  philosophy  of 
Berkeley,  and  sent  him  some  of  his  productions,  as 
the  following  letter  will  show  :  — 

COLDENGHAM,  March  26,  1744. 

Sin,  —  I  now  take  this  opportunity,  by  Mr.  Watkins,  to 

9 


130  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

return  you  my  hearty  thanks  with  the  books  you  were 
pleased  to  send  me.  .  As  to  the  Bishop's  "  New  Theory  of 
Vision,"  I  think  he  has  explained  some  things  better  than 
had  been  done  before,  but  as  to  the  main  design  he  labors 
at,  I  cannot  say  that  I  comprehend  it.  I  allow  that  the 
object  which  reflects  light  is  not  in  a  proper  sense  the  ob 
ject  of  vision,  no  more  than  a  bell  or  any  other  sounding  body 
is  the  object  of  the  sense  of  hearing,  and  yet  I  think  we  may 
without  much  impropriety  say  that  we  see  or  hear  a  bell 
as  well  as  that  we  feel  it,  though  it  be  certain  that  the 
bell  is  not  the  immediate  object  of  the  senses  of  seeing  and 
hearing,  as  it  is  of  the  sense  of  feeling,  and  that  it  is  only 
from  reasoning  and  experience  that  we  form  the  concep 
tion  of  the  same  objects  affecting  all  the  senses.  'If  his 
sentiments  do  not  differ  from  this  conception  of  the  matter, 
then  I  must  look  on  a  great  part  of  his  books  to  contain 
a  most  subtle  disputation  about  the  use  of  words.  If  his 
sentiments  be  different,  I  can  form  no  conception  of  them. 
His  mistake  in  the  "  Analyst,"  in  my  opinion,  may  be  made 
very  apparent,  that  lie  does  not  understand  the  doctrine  of 
Infinites  or  Fluxions,  as  received  by  mathematicians,  and 
this  I  think  I  can  demonstrate.  I  formerly  had  illustrated 
the  principles  of  that  doctrine  in  writing,  in  order  to  assist 
my  own  imagination  in  forming  a  regular  and  true  concep 
tion  of  it. 

Since  I  received  that  book  from  you  I  have  carefully  re- 
examined  what  I  had  formerly  wrote,  and  am  so  far  from 
finding  any  defect  in  what  was  formerly  clear  to  me,  that  I 
think  I  clearly  see  his  error,  that  he  has  no  conception  of  the 
principles  of  that  doctrine.  If  you  have  a  curiosity  to  be 
satisfied  in  this,  I  will  send  you  a  copy  of  my  paper.  It  is 
contained  in  about  two  sheets  of  paper. 

I  assume  the  liberty  always  to  be  allowed  in  philosophiz 
ing  to  differ  from  any  man  without  disrespect  or  disregard 
to  his  character,  as  I  now  do  with  respect  to  Bislfop  Berke 
ley,  whose  merit  is  very  conspicuous,  and  whom  I  highly 
esteem.  I  am  sir,  your  humble  servant, 

CADWALLADER  GOLDEN. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  131 

In  replying,  Johnson  as  usual  defended  his  friend 
and  favorite  author,  and  said  :  "I  am  much  obliged 
to  you  for  the  observations  you  have  made  upon 
Bishop  Berkeley's  pieces  that  I  sent  you.  I  take  it  that 
the  great  design  of  that  gentleman  in  what  he  wrote 
was  to  banish  scholasticism,  and  all  talk  without  any 
meaning,  out  of  philosophy,  which,  you  very  well 
know,  has  been  the  bane  of  science  in  all  other  parts 
of  learning,  as  well  as  in  religion  and  morality."  He 
did  not  claim  to  be  competent  to  understand  all  his 
reasonings :  "As  to  his  mathematical  pieces,"  said  he, 
"  I  confess  I  am  not  versed  enough  in  the  sublime 
mathematics  to  be  a  judge  of  them,  and  so  cannot 
pronounce  on  this  subject.  I  am  very  loth  to  give 
you  the  trouble  of  transcribing,  otherwise  I  should 
have  a  great  curiosity  to  see  what  you  have  wrote 
upon  it,  in  order  that  I  might  make  a  better  judg 
ment  ;  but  this  is  too  great  a  favor  for  me  to  ask." 

In  another  letter  of  later  date  he  showed  his  inde 
pendent  thinking,  and  confessed :  "  Your  notions  of 
prescience  and  liberty  are  entirely  agreeable  to  the 
apprehensions  I  have  of  those  matters ;  nor  could  any 
thing  have  been  expressed  better,  nor  can  the  greatest 
authority  in  the  world  induce  me  to  think  otherwise. 
You  knew  good  Dr.  Turner's  works.  He  takes  for  his 
motto  :  Nullius  in  verba.  It  is  a  very  good  one  ;  and 
for  the  same  reason,  though  I  have  a  profound  vener 
ation  for  Mr.  Locke  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  yet  I  will 
not  be  determined  by  their  authority,  nor  by  their 
reasons,  any  farther  than  I  can  see  for  myself.  I  am 
not  attached  to  Hutchinson.  Sir  Isaac  was  doubtless 
very  exact;  but  no  wonder  if  even  he,  in  matters 
very  abstruse,  should  sometimes  be  mistaken ;  nor  is 


132  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

it  less  to  be  wondered  at,  if  this  should  be  the  case 
now  with  Bishop  Berkeley,  though  I  cannot  but  think 
him  one  of  the  first  men  of  the  age.  I  have  lately 
read  his  "  Siris,"  and  have  desired  Mr.  Nicholls  to 
send  it  you,  if  he  can  consistent  with  his  engage 
ments  with  Mr.  Franklin,  of  whom  he  was  so  obliging 
as  to  borrow  it  for  me.  Be  it  so  that  there  may  be 
some  things  in  it  that  may  be  thought  fictitious,  yet  I 
cannot  but  wish  I  had  your  opinion  upon  the  philo 
sophical  part  of  it." 

Golden  paid  his  respects  to  Bishop  Berkeley's 
"  Treatise  on  Tar  Water,"  and  published  his  reflec 
tions  by  themselves,  "  which  "  said  he,  "  turned  out 
to  the  benefit  of  the  printer."  But  in  his  corre 
spondence  with  Johnson  his  pen  ran  chiefly  upon 
mental  and  moral  philosophy ;  and  the  several  letters 
which  passed  between  them  serve  to  illustrate  as 
much  the  character  of  the  one  as  the  other :  — 

COLDENGHAM,  June  2,  1746. 

REVEREND  SIR,  —  I  now  desire  Mr.  Nicholls  to  send 
you  a  copy  of  the  "  Treatise  "  which  I  mentioned  to  you  in 
my  last.  In  it  you  will  find  my  thoughts  on  some  things 
which  were  the  subject  of  your  last  to  me  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Watkins.  One  thing  I  am  desirous  to  be  more  fully  in 
formed  of  from  you,  how  consciousness  and  intelligence  be 
come  essential  to  all  agents  that  act  from  a  power  in  them 
selves.  As  to  my  own  part,  I  do  not  perceive  the  necessary 
connection  between  power  or  force  and  intelligence  or  con 
sciousness.  We  may  certainly  in  a  thousand  objects  of  our 
senses  discover  power  and  force  without  perceiving  any  intel 
ligence  in  them.  And  though  this  power  or  force  should  be 
only  apparent  and  the  consequence  or  effect  of  some  other 
primary  cause,  yet  I  am  certainly  to  be  excused  in  my  think 
ing  it  real  till  it  appear  otherwise  to  me,  as  I  believe  every 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  133 

man  is  to  be  excused  who  does  not  understand  astronomy, 
and  thinks  that  the  sun  moves,  and  this  opinion  cannot  in 
any  proper  sense  be  called  an  absurdity  in  him. 

In  the  next  place  I  must  beg  you  will  give  me  a  definition 
of  matter,  or  of  any  other  being  merely  passive,  without  any 
power  or  force  or  action.  Such  a  being  I  cannot  conceive, 
and  therefore  as  to  me  does  not  exist. 

You  will  oblige  me  exceedingly  by  giving  your  opinion  of 
the  printed  "  Treatise  ''  or  of  any  part  of  it  without  reserve. 
For  my  design  only  is  to  discover  and  be  assured  of  the  truth. 
You  will  find  by  some  parts  of  that  piece  that  though  I  have 
the  greatest  esteem  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  knowledge  and 
performances,  I  take  the  liberty  to  differ  from  him  in  some 
points.  That  man  never  existed  who  never  erred.  As  I 
have  a  great  esteem  of  your  judgment,  I  am  very  desirous  to 
have  your  opinion  of  what  I  send  as  soon  as  may  be  with 
your  conveniency,  and  thereby  you  will  very  much  oblige, 
Sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

CAJDWALLADER,  GOLDEN. 

June  19. 

Sin,  —  I  now  return  you  my  hearty  thanks  for  yours  of 
the  2d  instant,  and  especially  for  your  kind  present  that  ac 
companied  it.  It  is  my  sincere  opinion  of  it  that  it  is  a  very 
ingenious  piece,  and  the  result  of  much  and  deep  thought. 
There  is  one  thing  in  it  that  I  am  much  pleased  with,  which 
is,  that  you  make  the  resistance  of  what  you  call  matter  to 
be  an  action  deriving  from  a  self -exerting  principle.  This  I 
take  to  be  a  point  of  very  great  importance  and  use,  both  in 
physics  and  metaphysics  as  well  as  in  religion.  All  the  odds 
between  you  and  me  is,  that  you  imagine  matter  to  be  a  self- 
exerting  principle,  whereas  I  suppose  matter  to  be  a  mere 
passive  thing,  and  if  it  is  spirit  pervading  and  agitating  all 
things,  that  is  one  principle  of  action  according  to  Virgil's 
philosophy  :  mem  agitat  molem,  etc.,  which  though  it  be  the 
most  ancient  notion,  I  believe  is  nevertheless  true  ;  and  that 
elasticity  and  gravitation  or  attraction  and  repulsion  as  well 


134  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

as  resistance,  or  what  Sir  Isaac  calls  vis  inertice,  and  perhaps 
several  others,  are  so  many  various  exertions  of  the  one  self- 
exerting  active  principle  Who  pervades  all  things,  and  in 
Whom  we  live,  move,  and  have  our  being. 

Your  attempt  to  assign  the  cause  of  gravitation  appears 
to  me  a  curious  dissertation,  but  I  have  hardly  furniture  and 
force  of  mind  enough  to  comprehend  it,  having  for  many 
years  discontinued  these  kind  of  studies,  and  indeed  never 
turned  my  thoughts  that  way  so  closely  as  I  find  you  have 
done.  Your  system  seems  to  me  pretty  near  of  kin  to  Mr. 
Hutchinson's,  as  far  as  I  have  had  opportunity  to  be  ac 
quainted  with  his  from  my  Lord  Forbes,  but  I  believe  you 
have  much  outdone  him  in  the  exactness  of  your  method  and 
methodical  reasoning. 

And  now  in  answer  to  your  candid  inquiries,  you  ask  me 
how  consciousness  and  intelligence  become  essential  to  all 
agents  that  act  from  a  power  within  themselves  ?  where,  by  a 
power  within  themselves  I  take  you  to  mean  a  principle  of 
activity  belonging  to  their  essence,  and  not  either  arbitrarily 
annexed  to  them,  or  exerting  itself  in  and  by  them.  To 
which  I  answer,  a  power  of  action  without  a  principle  of  self- 
exertion  and  activity,  I  can  form  no  notion  of,  and  a  blind 
power  or  principle  of  activity  —  were  it  possible  —  would  be 
so  far  from  being  of  any  use  that  it  could  be  only  mischiev 
ous  in  nature.  In  fact  we  find  that  all  these  motions  and 
consequently  actions  in  nature  are  conformable  to  the  wisest 
laws  and  rules,  ever  aiming  at  some  useful  end  or  design,  and 
must  therefore  be  under  the  management  of  a  most  wise  and 
designing  principle,  so  that  it  seems  to  me  repugnant  to 
place  intelligence  and  activity  in  or  derive  them  from  different 
principles  ;  for  if  you  suppose  a  blind  principle  of  action  in 
matter,  you  must  still  suppose  it  under  the  ever  ruling  force 
of  an  intelligent  und  designing  principle ;  and  as  it  is  not  the 
part  of  a  philosopher  to  multiply  beings  and  causes  without 
necessity,  it  seems  plain  to  me  that  we  ought  not  to  imagine 
any  other  principle  of  action  than  the  principle  of  intelli 
gence,  which  we  know  from  our  own  soul  in  fact  has,  and  in 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  135 

nature  must  have,  a  power  of  self-exertion  and  activity.  We 
must  come  at  it  eventually  in  our  inquiries,  and  I  see  not 
how  one  can  avoid  admitting  it  immediately.  I  can  find 
nothing  of  activity  in  the  idea  of  matter  ;  nothing  but  what 
is  merely  passive,  and  therefore  can  only  conceive  it  as  a 
mere  passive  instrument  acted  on  by  the  one  principle  of  in 
telligence  and  activity.  Thus  I  say  things  appear  to  me,  nor 
can  I  with  the  utmost  force  of  mind  that  my  little  capacity 
will  admit  of,  conceive  of  them  any  otherwise,  but  I  submit 
what  I  am  about  to  advance  on  this  subject  to  your  better 
judgment,  and  remain  Sir, 

Your  most  obliged  friend  and  humble  servant, 

S.  J. 

A  letter  from  Golden,  dated  November  19,  1746, 
continued  his  speculative  inquiries,  and  met  very 
emphatically  the  apprehension,  reported  to  him  by 
Johnson,  of  one  of  the  Fellows  of  Yale  College,  that 
there  was  a  "  tendency  in  his  system  towards  athe 
ism."  This  was  a  misfortune  in  his  view  which  had 
happened  to  all  new  discoveries  in  philosophy,  and 
after  rejecting  the  thought  that  he  was  an  enemy 
to  true  religion,  he  proceeded  to  say :  — 

I  shall  add  something  on  this  occasion,  in  defense  of  my 
system,  that  from  it  a  certain  proof  may  be  given  of  the  evi 
dence  of  spirits,  or  immaterial  beings.  For  as  in  the  idea  of 
all  immaterial  beings,  quantity  or  shape  or  form  is  included, 
and  their  actions  are  all  divisible  into  degrees  or  quantities 
of  action  ;  the  being  from  whence  thinking  proceeds  cannot 
be  material,  because  no  kind  of  quantity  enters  our  concep 
tion  thereof,  neither  can  any  kind  of  measure  or  division  be 
applied  to  it,  so  much  as  in  imagination. 

All  allow  that  when  God  created  matter,  He  gave  it 
some  essential  property  ;  otherwise  there  can  be  no  essential 
difference  between  matter  and  spirit,  and  why  may  not  I  say, 
in  my  way  of  speaking,  that  God  gave  at  the  creation  to  dif- 


136  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

ferent  kinds  of  matter,  different  and  distinct  kinds  of  action. 
As  to  my  part,  I  can  discover  no  kind  of  ill  consequence  in 
the  one  more  than  in  the  other. 

In  answer  to  your  demand  of  my  opinion  of  Dr.  Berkeley's 
book  "  De  Motu,"  I  shall  give  it  with  the  freedom  requisite  to 
Philosophy.  I  think  that  the  doctor  has  made  the  greatest 
collection  in  this  and  his  other  performances,  of  indistinct 
and  indigested  conceptions  from  the  writings  of  both  the  an 
cients,  and  the  moderns  that  I  ever  met  with  in  any  man's 
performances ;  that  he  has  the  art  of  puzzling  and  confound 
ing  his  readers  in  an  elegant  style  not  common  to  such  kind 
of  writers ;  and  that  he  is  as  great  an  abuser  of  the  use  of 
words  as  any  one  of  those  he  blames  most  for  that  fault.  I 
hope  you  will  pardon  me  for  writing  so  freely  of  your  friend, 
and  of  so  great  a  man.  I  do  it  with  the  less  concern  in 
hopes  thereby  to  provoke  you  to  use  the  same  freedom  with 
me.  Compliments  without  sincerity  spoil  all  philosophy. 

I  am  so  often  interrupted  at  this  time  with  business,  and 
which  I  wish  I  could  avoid,  that  you  must  excuse  the  inco 
herence  of  this  scrawl,  and  likewise  that  I  say  nothing  on 
the  subject  of  your  treatise.  I  will  do  it  when  I  can  apply 
my  thoughts  to  it  in  the  "manner  you  desire.  I  must  still 
stay  some  days  on  business  in  this  place,  which  deprives  me 
of  that  pleasure  which  I  had  hoped  to  obtain  in  old  age  ;  that 
is,  free  thoughts  and  conversation  with  my  friends  on  phi 
losophy. 

The  next  letter  contained  the  notice  of  the  treatise 
which  Johnson  had  desired  him  to  examine,  and  is 
dated  :  — 

COLDENGHAM,  January,  27,  1746-7. 

REV.  SIR,  —  In  my  last  I  told  you  how  much  I  had  been 
involved  in  the  public  affairs,  that  I  had  not  been  able  to 
consider  your  new  System  of  Morality  with  the  attention 
which  I  designed  to  give  to  the  reading  of  it,  and  which  it 
truly  deserves.  Nothing  has  been  a  greater  injury  to  true 
religion  than  the  pretenses  that  some  people  have  set  up 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  137 

that  religion  is  not  the  object  of  the  understanding,  but  is 
merely  founded  on  authority,  for  in  such  case  it  could  not 
with  any  propriety  be  designed  for  the  use  of  an  intelligent 
being,  and  there  are  no  means  left  to  distinguish  between 
true  and  false  Religion  when  we  are  not  allowed  to  use  our 
understanding  in  forming  our  judgment,  and  the  false  may 
set  up  as  strong  pretenses  to  authority  as  the  true,  and  in 
fact  always  does. 

You  have  by  your  performance  clearly  evinced  the  con 
trary  of  this,  that  true  religion  is  founded  on  the  reason  or 
nature  of  things,  and  you  have  shown  this  in  a  manner 
adapted  to  common  capacities  and  the  commonly  received 
conceptions,  which  makes  it  more  generally  useful  and  the 
more  valuable. 

I  have  considered  the  same  in  my  own  Principles  of  Nat 
ural  Philosophy,  and  I  have  done  this  for  two  reasons  :  viz. 
thereby  to  remove  some  metaphysical  objections  which  you 
made  to  my  principles,  and  which  I  hope  by  this  method  to 
remove  more  easily  than  by  a  direct  answer  ;  the  other 
reason  is  in  hopes  to  give  you  some  hints  which  may  per 
haps  be  of  use  to  you  in  reconsidering  your  subject,  as  you 
tell  me  that  you  intend  to  publish  a  second  edition  of  that 
work.  I  hope  you  will  give  me  your  sentiments  with  the 
same  freedom  that  you  see  I  write  to  you,  and  thereby  I  shall 
judge  that  the  freedom  I  take  is  not  disagreeable  to  you. 
I  have  no  other  view  but  truth,  and  for  that  reason  I  shall 
myself  be  more  obliged  by  having  my  mistakes  shown  to 
me  than  by  any  applause.  I  am,  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

CADWALLADER,  GOLDEN. 

Johnson  waited  nearly  three  months,  and  then  re 
turned  the  following  answer  :  — 

April  15. 

SIR, — I  have  been  so  much  taken  up  of  late  in  several 
journeys  and  various  other  affairs,  that  this  must  be  my 
apology  for  not  sooner  answering  your  kind  letter  of  Jan. 
27.  Your  beautiful  little  draught  of  the  first  principles  of 


138  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

morality  is  what  I  have  been  very  much  pleased  with ;  I 
have  read  it  with  attention  three  times,  and  every  time  with 
a  fresh  increase  of  pleasure,  and  I  now  at  length  return  my 
hearty  thanks  for  it,  and  for  the  candor  you  express  towards 
the  piece  I  had  the  presumption  to  publish.  You  have  in 
this  little  piece  of  yours  made  such  an  easy,  gradual,  and  nat 
ural  progress  from  physics  to  metaphysics,  and  from  thence 
to  morality,  as  is  very  pleasing  to  the  mind ;  and  I  think,  if 
I  rightly  apprehend,  you  have  now  so  explained  yourself  that 
we  do  not  much  differ,  and  what  difference  yet  remains  I  be 
lieve  is  but  merely  verbal.  My  chief  objection  was  against 
your  using  the  term  action  as  expressing  anything  in  matter, 
which  I  take  to  be  a  mere  passive  thing,  and  that  action 
cannot  in  strict  propriety  of  speaking  be  attributed  to  it ;  for 
which  reason  that  expression  still  grated  upon  my  mind  till 
I  came  to  your  7th  section,  in  which,  when  you  come  to  ex 
plain  the  difference  between  spirit  and  body,  you  say  "  the 
actions  of  the  latter  are  altered  by  efficient  causes  always 
external  to  themselves." 

This  seems  evidently  to  conclude  what  I  would  be  at,  and 
that  at  the  bottom  we  think  alike,  viz.  that  when  we  speak 
of  matter  and  the  action  of  it  we  use  that  word  for  want  of 
a  better,  in  a  sense  rather  figurative  than  literal,  and  un 
derstand  it  in  a  vulgar  sense  rather  than  a  sense  that  is 
strictly  philosophical,  [as  we]  do  the  rising  and  setting  of 
the  sun.  So  we  may  call  writing  the  action  of  the  pen,  when 
it  is  only  in  reality  merely  acted  [on] ,  and  consequently  that 
by  the  action  of  matter  you  do  not  mean  any  exertion  of  its 
own,  much  less  a  designed  conscious  self-exertion  wliich  al 
ways  enters  into  my  notion  of  efficient  causes ;  and  that  there 
fore  when  you  say  it  is  determined  by  the  (exertion  I  would 
say  of)  efficient  causes  always  external  to  itself,  those  efficient 
causes  must  always  be  self-exerting  and  intelligent  beings 
i.  e.,  spirits,  which  therefore  only  are  properly  agents,  and 
consequently  that  all  the  actions  in  all  nature  that  affect  our 
senses  and  excite  ideas  in  our  minds  are  really  the  actions 
of  that  Great  Supreme  Almighty  Being  or  Spirit  whom  you 
call  (25)  the  soul  of  the  universe. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  139 

I  do  not,  with  Sir  Isaac  in  §  9,  quite  like  that  expres 
sion.  It  may  however  be  admitted,  if  it  means  that  He 
animates  and  governs  the  world  as  the  soul  does  the  body, 
which  is  merely  passive  to  it :  it  is  so  far  right,  —  He 
being  in  this  sense  the  natural  Governor  of  the  natural 
world ;  but  this  seems  not  sufficient  unless  you  also  conceive 
Him  as  the  moral  Governor  of  the  intelligent  or  moral  world, 
rewarding  or  punishing  men  according  as  they  behave,  — 
which  is  what  I  would  apprehend  you  to  mean  by  the  real 
words. 

You  say  very  truly,  §  9,  We  have  no  idea  of  matter ;  by 
which  it  is  plain  that  by  matter  you  mean  something 
that  is  not  the  object  either  of  our  senses  or  minds.  Of 
what  use  then  is  it  in  philosophy  ?  Why  may  we  not 
wholly  drop  it,  and  do  as  well  without  it,  perhaps  much 
better,  and  suppose  what  you  call  the  action  of  it  to  be  the 
action  of  that  Almighty  Spirit  in  whom  we  live,  move,  and 
have  our  being,  and  consider  all  nature  as  being  the  glorious 
system  of  his  incessant  exertions  and  operations,  with  which 
by  his  own  action  governed  by  fixed  rules  of  his  most  wise 
establishment  called  the  laws  of  nature,  He  perpetually  and 
with  endless  variety  of  objects  affects  our  senses  and  minds 
This  will  sufficiently  account  for  everything,  whereas  mattet 
whereof  we  have  no  idea,  can  account  for  nothing. 

You  use  the  expression,  §§  20  and  21,  During  the  time  oj 
our  existence,  which  sounds  as  though  it  was  to  have  a  po 
riod  with  this  vain  life.  This  I  cannot  suppose  your  mean 
ing  (and  therefore  might  perhaps  be  better  left  out),  because 
I  apprehend  you  must  think  it  evident  from  the  wisdom,  jus  - 
tice,  and  goodness  of  God,  compared  with  that  excellent  nature 
He  has  given  us,  that  we  must  be  designed  for  nobler  ends 
than  can  be  answered  by  our  existence  only  in  this  short,  un 
certain,  and  troublesome  life.  Thus,  Sir,  I  have  used  the  free 
dom  you  desire,  and  which  I  doubt  not  you  will  take  in  the 
same  good  part,  and  with  the  same  pleasure  as  I  do  yours, 
and  always  shall.  I  am  glad  to  find  by  your  "  Gazette  "  that 
you  are  at  last  resolved  to  have  a  College  in  your  Gov- 


140  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

eminent.  This  is  what  I  doubt  not  you  have  much  at  heart, 
and  I  heartily  wish  success  to  it,  and  shall  be  glad  to  cor 
respond  with  you  in  anything  in  my  little  power  that  may 
tend  to  promote  it,  and  wish  it  may  take  effect  speedily 
that  you  may  not  suffer  the  Jersey  College  (which  will  be  a 
fountain  of  nonsense)  to  get  ahead  of  it. 

I  am,  Sir,  etc.  S.  J. 

The  business  of  his  official  position  crowded  upon 
him,  and  Golden  found  little  leisure  to  pursue  his  fa 
vorite  speculations,  but  he  wrote  again  to  Johnson 
in  answer  to  the  foregoing  letter,  and  then  there  ap 
pears  to  have  been  for  a  short  time  a  suspension  of 
their  correspondence  :  — 

NEW  YORK,  May  18/fc,  1747. 

REV.  Sm,  —  Yours  of  the  15th  of  last  month,  in  which 
you  express  some  satisfaction  in  the  little  rude  sketch  I 
sent  you  on  the  first  principles  of  morality,  gave  me  a  good 
deal  of  pleasure,  though  I  cannot  be  fully  clear  that  either 
of  us  has  received  clear  conceptions  of  the  other's  thoughts. 
But  in  the  first  place  I  must  thank  you  for  your  taking  no 
tice  of  some  expressions  in  my  paper  liable  to  exceptions.  I 
own  they  are  justly  so,  but  as  what  I  wrote  was  only  for 
your  private  amusement,  and  to  obtain  your  opinion  on  my 
thoughts,  I  did  not  much  attend  to  the  accuracy  of  expres 
sion. 

I  did  not  think  ot  the  old  opinion  of  the  soul  of  the  world 
when  I  wrote  that  paragraph.  My  design  was  only  to  avoid 
all  expressions  which  could  raise  any  idea  of  matter  or  cor 
poreity,  as  the  word  spirit  in  its  natural  signification  is  apt 
to  do,  and  for  that  reason  only  I  made  use  of  the  words  soul 
or  mind.  Please  then  to  put  in  their  place  infinitely  Intelli 
gent  Being.  It  was  by  the  same  inadvertency  the  words,  — 
During  the  time  of  our  existence^  were  made  use  of,  and  I 
am  obliged  to  you  for  the  correction  which  you  have  made 
of  them. 


OF    SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  141 

I  jut  now  to  come  to  the  matter  itself,  I  cannot  have  any 
idea  of  anything  merely  passive  or  without  any  kind  of 
action.  I  can  have  no  idea  of  a  mere  negative,  and  since, 
as  I  observed,  all  our  ideas  of  everything  external  to  us  must 
arise  from  the  actions  of  those  things  on  our  minds,  every 
thing  of  which  we  have  any  idea  must  be  active.  This  is 
my  fundamental  argument,  to  which  1  suspect  you  have  not 
given  sufficient  attention ;  and  from  whence  I  conclude  that 
all  matter  is  active.  You  seem  likewise  not  to  have  alluded 
to  the  distinction  which  I  make  between  the  substance  and 
the  action  of  that  substance.  We  have  no  idea  of  the  sub 
stance  of  intelligent  Beings,  as  little  as  of  material.  We  have 
only  ideas  of  their  actions.  Or  the  ideas  are  the  effects  of 
their  actions  on  our  minds.  But,  Sir,  if  you  attribute  all 
action  immediately  to  that  Almighty  Spirit  in  whom  we  live, 
move,  and  have  our  Being,  all  nature  (as  you  say)  being  a  sys 
tem  of  his  incessant  exertions,  etc.,  I  do  not  see  how  anything 
or  action  can  be  morally  evil  in  a  proper  sense,  and  the 
foundation  of  morality  seems  merely  to  be  sapped.  It 
seems  to  be  a  kind  of  Spinozism  in  other  words.  But  as 
this  is  inconsistent  with  the  whole  tenor  and  end  of  your 
treatise  I  can  only  conclude  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  form 
any  conception  of  the  first  principles  of  your  and  Dr.  Berke 
ley's  system  of  Philosophy.  I  am  afraid  you  will  find  me 
of  a  much  duller  apprehension  than  you  at  first  imagined, 
and  that  if  you  are  willing  to  make  me  understand  your 
system,  it  will  give  you  more  trouble  than  perhaps  any 
thing,  that  can  be  expected  from  me  on  the  subject,  can  de 
serve. 

The  public  affairs  have  employed  my  time  so  much  that 
I  cannot  write  more  fully  at  this  time  on  this  or  any  other 
subject,  and  I  must  desire  that  the  same  excuse  may  serve 
for  my  not  answering  your  letter  sooner.  But  if  you  be  at 
more  leisure,  a  line  or  two  from  you  will  be  exceedingly 
agreeable  to  me,  that  I  may  know  whether  I  have  been  so 
lucky  as  to  explain  anything  to  your  satisfaction,  or  to  free  me 
from  my  mistakes.  I  hope  soon  to  be  freed  from  these  clogs 


142  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

to  tKe  pleasantest  amusement  in  old  age,  and  to  have  time  to 
show  how  much  I  am,  Sir, 

Your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 

CADWALLADER  GOLDEN. 

June  7. 

SIR,  —  Could  you  be  sensible  of  the  manner  of  life  I  am 
obliged  to  live,  I  should  have  little  occasion  to  make  any 
apology  for  my  being  so  long  before  I  answer  your  obliging 
letters,  and  especially  your  last  of  May  18,  for  which  I  now 
return  you  my  sincerest  thanks  ;  or  for  my  incorrectness  of 
expression  when  I  do  write,  which  doubtless  is  the  chief  occa 
sion  of  my  not  being  clearly  understood,  as  well  as  of  my  not 
sufficiently  attending  to  what  you  write.  For  my  case  is 
not  altogether  dissimilar  to  that  of  the  great  Apostle,  partic 
ularly  in  being  in  journeyings  often  and  in  perils  among  false 
brethren. 

I  am  entirely  satisfied  and  well  pleased  with  the  amend 
ments  you  allow  me  to  make  in  the  ingenious  draught  you 
were  so  good  as  to  send  me  of  your  notion  of  the  first  princi 
ples  of  morality  ;  with  which  it  now  runs  clearly  to  my  mind 
and  is  equally  pleasing  to  my  friends  here,  to  whom  I  have 
communicated  it.  As  for  the  incidental  turn  I  made  upon 
an  expression  of  yours  in  favor  of  Bp.  Berkeley's  system, 
I  was  little  more  than  jocular  on  that  occasion,  being  not 
dogmatically  tenacious  of  his  peculiar  sentiments,  much  less 
zealous  of  making  you  a  proselyte  to  them.  I  would  how 
ever  observe  that  you  have  made  a  considerable  approach 
towards  them,  at  least  as  far  as  I  am  concerned  to  wish  you 
to  do,  particularly  in  your  allowing  that  all  our  ideas  of  sen 
sible  things  are  the  effects  of  the  actions  of  something  ex 
ternal  to  our  minds,  and  that  even  resistance  is  an  action. 
Your  supposing  an  active  medium  which  you  call  matter  in 
tervening  between  the  action  of  the  Deity  and  our  minds 
perceiving,  to  which  they  are  immediately  passive,  though  I 
am  not  clear  in  it,  does  not  affect  me  so  long  as  you  allow 
all  action  throughout  all  sensible  nature  to  derive  originally 
from  Him. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  143 

I  doubt  I  expressed  myself  sometimes  uncouthly,  at  least 
very  incorrectly,  otherwise  you  would  not  have  inferred  from 
what  I  wrote  that  I  attributed  "  all  action  immediately  to 
the  Almighty  Spirit."  I  meant  only  all  the  actions  in  sen 
sible  nature  only,  or  which  produce  in  our  minds  the  ideas  of 
sense  and  imagination  ;  but  I  was  far  from  meaning  that 
there  are  no  other  actions  besides  those  of  the  Deity.  For 
this  would  be  in  effect  to  deny  or  doubt  whether  there  be 
any  other  Beings  besides  Him  and  our  ideas.  This  would 
sap  the  foundation  of  morality  sure  enough,  and  would  be  at 
least  as  bad  as  Spinozism.  Bp.  Berkeley  any  more  than  I, 
never  doubted  of  the  existence  or  actions  of  other  inferior 
created  spirits,  free  agents  and  subject  to  moral  government. 
All  he  contends  for  is  that  there  are  no  other  than  two 
sorts  of  beings,  the  one  active  the  other  passive,  —  that  spirit, 
the  Deity,  and  created  intelligence  alone  are  the  active  beings, 
and  the  objects  of  sense  alone  are  merely  passive  ;  and  that 
there  is  no  active  medium  intervening  between  the  actions  of 
the  Deity  and  our  minds  whom  He  has  made  to  be  percep 
tive  and  self -active  Beings.  These  I  take  to  be  the  first 
principles  of  his  system.  But  however  at  a  loss  you  may 
be  about  his  peculiar  system,  there  is  a  very  pretty  book  pub 
lished  in  England  in  1745,  called  "  Dialogues  Concerning 
Education,"  being  a  plan  for  training  up  the  youth  of  both 
sexes  in  learning  and  virtue,  which  I  have  lately  seen,  and 
long  to  have  you  read ;  and  in  which  I  don't  doubt  we  should 
perfectly  agree.  I  have  recommended  it  to  Mr.  Shatford  of 
New  York  to  procure  several  copies,  and  do  not  think  we 
could  put  a  better  thing  into  the  hands  of  our  children.  It 
is  the  prettiest  thing  in  its  kind,  and  the  best  system  both 
in  physical,  metaphysical,  and  moral  philosophy  I  have  ever 
seen. 

Dr.  Johnson  had  two  sons ;  the  birth  of  the  elder 
has  been  already  given,  and  that  of  the  other  —  Wil 
liam —  took  place  March  9,  1731.  He  saw  as  their 
intellects  opened,  that  if  they  had  such  an  education 


144  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

as  he  desired  for  them,  it  would  be  necessary  for  him 
to  give  his  personal  attention  to  it,  and  carry  them 
through  the  preliminary  course,  and  "  that  it  might 
be  the  more  agreeable  to  them  to  have  companions, 
he  took  several  gentlemen's  sons  of  New  York  and 
Albany."  When  the  youngest  was  born  he  wrote  in 
his  private  diary  :  "  0  God,  I  give  this  child  as  well 
as  the  other  to  Thee.  Bless  them  both,"  and  "let 
me  live  to  see  them  well  educated  and  engaged  in 
Thy  service."  At  the  age  of  about  thirteen  they 
were  each  admitted  to  the  lowest  class  in  Yale  Col 
lege,  but  "  it  was  a  great  damage  to  them,"  said  the 
father  "  that  they  entered  so  young,  and  that  when 
they  were  there,  they  had  so  little  to  do,  their  class 
mates  being  so  far  behind  them."  He  regretted  that 
he  had  not  taught  them  Hebrew  before  they  entered ; 
a  study  which  they  could  not  pursue  in  College,  as 
there  was  no  competent  teacher.  William  Samuel, 
the  eldest,  received  the  degree  of  B.  A.  in  1744,  and 
was  the  single  "  scholar  of  the  house,"  for  that  year, 
to  whom  was  adjudged  the  premium  under  the  bounty 
of  Dean  Berkeley.  He  chose  the  law  for  his  profes 
sion,  and  in  the  last  week  of  May,  1747,  he  took  a 
journey  to  Boston,  that  he  might  attend  a  few  Lec 
tures,  be  present  at  the  Commencement,  and  admitted 
a  Master  of  Arts  in  Harvard  University. 

Some  external  preparation  for  the  occasion  appears 
to  have  been  necessary,  since  he  wrote  to  his  father 
from  Cambridge  that  he  had  spoken  for  a  wig  and  could 
not  have  one  under  £10;  everything  being  "  mon 
strously  dear."  The  cost  of  his  degree  exceeded  his 
expectations:  "  Commencement  is  now  over"  said  he, 
"  and  I  have  taken  a  Degree  which  cost  me  £8  ;  four 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  145 

of  which  I  was  unwilling  to  pay,  but  the  Corporation 
appointed  the  charge  when  they  granted  my  request, 
and  it  was  then  too  late  to  hesitate  about  it." 

The  letters  which  passed  between  the  father  and 
the  son  at  this  time  are  full  of  affection,  and  because 
it  was  the  turning  point  in  the  son's  life,  the  most 
important  of  them  deserve  a  place  in  this  connection. 
He  had  reported  his  pleasant  journey  and  safe  arrival, 
and  given  some  account  of  the  old  friends  of  his 
father,  — Dr.  Cutler  and  Mr.  Caner,1  —  as  well  as  his 
inclinations  about  a  profession  and  his  desire  to  be 
governed  by  the  paternal  counsels,  before  he  penned 
the  following  letter  :  — 

HONORED  SIR,  —  When  I  wrote  last  it  was  in  great  haste, 
and  only  that.,you  might  just  know  that  I  was  well.  Since 
which  I  have  met  with  nothing  very  remarkable.  The 
small-pox,  which,  when  I  wrote  first,  I  informed  you  was  in 
town,  is  now  only  in  the  pest-house,  and  there  only  one  negro 
has  it,  so  that  there  is  now  no  danger.  The  gentleman  also, 
I  then  mentioned,  is  since  taken  up  and  buried  ;  he  was 
found  with  his  money  and  watch  about  him,  and  therefore  'tis 
thought  was  not  murdered  as  was  suspected.  It  proved  to 
be  the  gentleman  from  London.  He  was  son  to  a  Deacon  of 
Dr.  Guise's  Church,  of  a  fine  fortune,  and  came  recommended 
to  Dr.  Colman,  who  never  saw  him  but  once.  He  preached 
a  sermon  about  it  last  Sunday,  and  told  them  that  the  last 
was  the  most  afflicting  week  that  he  ever  endured. 

About  £40  of  the  money  I  brought  with  me  was  of  the 
Rhode  Island  last  emission,  and  consequently  of  no  use  here,, 
for  it  is  £50  fine  to  tender  it  to  any  one.  What  I  mention  it  for 
is  because  I  got  Captain  Prince  to  change  it,  and  he  expects 
that  you  will  indemnify  him,  if  the  law  prohibiting  the  bills 
of  the  neighboring  colonies  (which  we  hear  our  Assembly  is 

1  Rev.  Henry  Caner,  long  his  neighbor  over  the  Church  at  Fairfield,  Conn.,  had 
recently  been  made  Rector  of  King's  Chapel  Boston. 
10 


146  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

about  to  enact)  should  take  place  before  he  gets  home.  If 
it  should,  I  believe  you  must  repay  him  and  send  it  down  to 
me  if  you  have  an  opportunity,  that  I  may  exchange  it  at 
Newport  on  my  return  home. 

The  precepts  you  gave  me  in  your  letter  are  excellent,  and 
the  method  you  prescribe  is  no  doubt  the  best ;  for  I  find  by 
experience  that  vice  is  not  to  be  reasoned  with,  but  the  temp 
tation  to  it  to  be  avoided,  and  none  is  there  greater  than  that 
of  bad  company.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  associate  with  ill 
men  and  not  sometimes  do  as  they  do,  and  even  though  we  do 
not,  yet  their  converse  leaves  a  stain  upon  the  mind  which  it 
is  very  difficult  to  get  rid  of.  For  this  reason  it  shall  be,  as 
you  advise,  my  greatest  concern  to  avoid  them,  and  chief  care 
not  to  consent  with  them  in  their  wickedness. 

It  is  the  greatest  desire  of  my  soul  to  be  useful  to  mankind, 
but  the  difficulty  is  to  determine  in  what  way  ;  for  as  we 
must  necessarily  be  confined  to  some  one  kind  of  business  or 
profession  for  a  subsistence,  so  I  think  every  man  ought  to 
choose  that  which  is  most  agreeable  to  his  dispositions  and 
abilities,  for  in  that  he  is  most  likely  to  succeed  ;  and  here  it 
seems  that  what  is  really  the  best  profession,  in  itself  con 
sidered,  is  out  of  the  question,  but  the  point  is  what  is  best 
for  this  or  that  particular  man.  For  as  it  is  impossible  that 
all  men  can  live  by  any  one  profession,  though  it  be  really 
the  best,  so  the  Wisdom  of  Heaven  has  almost  infinitely 
diversified  the  dispositions  and  powers  of  men,  that  they  may 
not  only  follow  but  also  delight  in  the  different  pursuits  of 
life  ;  and  he  I  take  it  as  much  answers  the  end  of  his  being 
who  adorns  a  lower  as  he  who  fills  a  higher  station  of  life, 
provided  he  is  apparently  calculated  for  it,  and,  therefore,  it 
seems  I  must  consider  not  in  what  profession  the  greatest 
good  may  be  done  to  mankind,  but  in  what  station  I,  with 
these  dispositions,  these  abilities  and  acquirements  which  I 
possess,  am  most  likely  to  serve  them  ;  for  where  there  is  one 
that  succeeds  in  an  employment  for  which  he  is  not  calcu 
lated  there  are  thousands  that  fail. 

You  may  perhaps  think  from  that  warmth  and  eagerness  of 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  147 

temper  which  is  natural  to  me,  that  I  am  for  rushing  into  life 
and  business  hand  over  head  without .  due  deliberation  and 
forecast.  But  in  this  you  are  really  mistaken,  for  I  am  fully 
sensible  that  all  my  future  happiness  in  life  depends  upon 
my  taking  a  right  course  ;  so  I  have  employed  my  most  seri 
ous  and  intense  thought  upon  it  for  this  long  time  past,  and 
have  endeavored  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  consider  everything 
relating  to  it,  and  to  view  my  case,  in  every  possible  light  I 
could  place  it.  But  I  am  resolved  to  do  nothing  rashly,  yet  I 
think  it  is  high  time  for  me  to  have  some  particular  business 
in  view,  and  to  be  qualifying  myself  for  it.  And  as  I  chiefly 
and  above  aU  (under  the  conduct  of  Heaven)  depend  upon 
your  advice,  direction,  and  approbation  in  this  most  important 
case,  so  I  hope  you  will  be  prepared  when  I  come  home  to 
give  me  your  last  and  best  advice  in  the  affair,  that  I  may 
earnestly  apply  myself  more  immediately  to  fit  myself  for 
business.  And  pray,  Sir,  consider  the  distinction  I  mentioned 
above,  and  consider  not  what  profession  is  best  in  itself  (for 
if  I  am  not  fit  for  it,  that  must  be  the  very  worst  of  all  for 
me),  but  what  is  best  for  me  such  as  I  am.  We  cannot  un 
make  ourselves.  We  may  correct  but  can  never  eradicate 
the  first  principles  of  our  constitution  either  in  body  or  mind. 
I  know  and  am  fully  persuaded  you  would  do  what  to  you 
appears  best  for  me  in  every  case,  and  you  know  my  temper, 
dispositions,  abilities,  etc.  as  well,  perhaps  better  than  I  do 
myself  ;  therefore,  Sir,  consider  these  and  direct  me  to  a 
course  of  life  that  is  suitable  for  me  ;  for  by  this  means,  and 
by  the  practice  of  virtue  in  such  a  course,  I  apprehend  it  is 
most  likely  I  may  become  an  instance  of  the  generis  humani 
debitio,  and  an  instrument  of  doing  all  the  good  I  am  capable 
of  among  this  degenerate  race,  and  may  best  secure  both  my 

temporal  and  eternal  interest 

I  am,  honored  Sir, 

Your  most  dutiful  son  and  humble  servant, 

WM.  SAML  JOHNSON. 
CAMBRIDGE,  June  13, 1747. 


148  LIFE    AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

STRATFORD,  June  23,  1747. 

DEAREST  SON, —  I  thank  you  for  yours  of  the  13th,  and 
am  glad  to  find  the  small-pox  is  not  likely  to  spread.  That 
is  a  very  melancholy  story  you  tell  of  the  young  gentleman, 
and  must  come  with  a  most  shocking  force  to  his  poor 
father's  ears,  whom  every  human  breast  must  tenderly  com 
passionate,  though  perhaps  the  less,  if  what  I  heard  be  true, 
that  that  idle  passion  called  love  was  the  occasion  of  it,  on 
account  of  which,  it  being  unequal,  he  forced  him  away.  I 
conclude  the  affair  of  the  Rhode  Island  money  need  give  us 
no  concern,  since  though  Prince  told  me  of  his  changing  it, 
he  said  nothing  further  about  it. 

I  am  extremely  well  pleased  with  the  remarks  you  make 
on  the  advice  I  gave  you  about  the  infectiousness  of  vice  and 
the  great  danger  of  bad  company,  and  the  resolution  you  ex 
press  to  be  upon  the  strictest  guard,  which  I  pray  God  you 
may  steadfastly  abide  by ;  and  remember  that  that  loose, 
weak,  inconstant  humor,  abusively  called  Free  Thinking,  is 
equally  infectious  with  vice,  of  which  it  is  always  either  a 
cause  or  an  effect,  or  most  commonly  both.  I  hope,  therefore, 
you  will  be  no  less  upon  your  guard  against  that,  and  any 
conversations  leading  to  it,  especially  those  of  the  ludicrous 
kind,  which  can  be  no  more  reasoned  with  than  vice  itself, 
or  the  most  violent  temptation  to  it.  And  as  I  doubt  not 
but  the  infidelity  of  this  wicked  age  is  chiefly  occasioned  by 
an  unbounded  self-conceit  and  the  unconstrained  indulgence 
of  lust,  I  would  particularly  recommend  it  to  you  above  all 
things  to  be  clothed  with  humility  and  to  flee  youthful  lust. 

I  am  also  equally  well  pleased  with  the  reflections  you 
make  upon  the  subject  of  making  a  wise  choice  of  a  course 
of  life  wherein  to  be  useful  to  mankind.  They  are  very  just. 
If  a  man  is  not  pleased  with  the  business  he  follows,  it  cannot 
be  expected  he  will  succeed  in  it.  For  which  reason  I  have 
always  resolved  as  far  as  possible  to  indulge  your  inclinations, 
though  at  the  expense  of  my  own,  for  I  am  so  much  con 
cerned,  if  possible,  that  you  may  be  happy,  that  I  should 
gladly  undergo  a  great  deal  of  uneasiness  rather  than  stand 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  149 

in  the  way  of  it :  nay,  I  have  said,  though  I  could  never  en 
joy  myself  if  you  should  follow  war,  yet  I  would  rather  sub 
mit  to  that,  than  that  you  should  not  be  able  to  enjoy  your 
self  well  in  some  other  calling. 

•But  with  regard  to  the  question  before  us,  I  agree  with 
you,  that  in  choosing  a  course  of  life  much  allowance  must 
be  made  to  one's  natural  genius  and  inclination.  Genuine 
nature  must  always  be  consulted.  Notwithstanding  which,  I 
cannot  quite  agree  with  you  in  saying  that  what  is  really  the 
best  profession  in  itself  considered  is  out  of  the  question. 
Methinks  it  ought  by  all  means  to  be  taken  into  considera 
tion  with  other  things,  in  order  to  make  a  just  judgment  how 
to  steer.  If  indeed  it  is  plainly  hmnoris  impar,  or  one  has 
an  unconquerable  aversion  to  it  as  a  business  of  life,  as  I 
have  for  husbandry  (though  a  great  opinion  of  it),  it  must 
be  doubtless  a  duty  to  choose  rather  some  other  course.  But 
if  I  am  equally  qualified  for  that  with  another,  perhaps  better, 
and  have  only  some  little  reluctances  and  misgivings,  I  ought 
in  that  case,  for  the  sake  of  the  superior  intrinsic  excellency 
and  usefulness,  to  set  my  reason  to  work  to  conquer  those  re 
luctances  if  possible,  And  I  know  by  experience,  agreeable 
to  what  you  allow,  that  the  nature  cannot  be  eradicated  yet 
it  may  be  corrected ;  that  what  one  has  no  genius  for,  and 
even  a  reluctance  to>  may  by  dint  of  resolution  and  applica 
tion  be  rendered  not  only  tolerable  but  even  delightful,  as 
was  my  case  with  regard  to  Mathematics. 

You  are,  my  son,  and  I  bless  God  for  it,  by  genius  and 
ability  equally  qualified  to  shine  either  in  the  pulpit,  at  the 
bar,  or  at  arms.  As  to  the  last,  I  hope  that  is  now  at  least 
in  a  great  measure  out  of  the  question.  And  as  to  the  two 
former,  I  shall  for  my  part  be  entirely  easy  whichsoever  you 
choose,  though  I  prefer  the  first,  for  which  you  are  already 
so  well  qualified  that  you  can  well  afford  to  spend  a  year  or 
two  in  making  a  trial  of  the  study  of  Law,  which  would  by 
no  means  be  lost  time,  if  you  should  afterwards  quit  it  for 
Divinity.  On  the  other  hand,  if  you  like  it  you  may  abide 
by  it. 


150  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

You  say  well  (as  being  so  young  you  well  may),  that  you 
are  not  for  rushing  suddenly  into  life.  And  as  you  can  spare 
yet  three  or  four  years  to  consider  and  qualify  yourself,  I  doubt 
not  but  by  that  time  you  may  begin  in  either  of  those  profes 
sions  with  good  advantage.  Meantime  assure  yourself  it  is 
my  daily  and  earnest  prayer  both  for  you  and  your  brother 
not  only  that  you  may  be  duly  qualified,  but  also  directed  to 
such  a  choice  of  business  for  life  as  may  enable  you  to  do 
God  the  greatest  honor  and  mankind  the  greatest  good  you 
are  capable  of,  and  at  the  same  time,  in  the  best  manner  to 
enjoy  yourselves  here,  and  be  qualified  for  the  most  ample  re 
ward  hereafter.  And  to  my  prayers  I  shall  willingly  add  my 
best  advice  and  endeavors,  and  I  am  glad  you  have  opened 
the  way  to  a  particular  and  free  correspondence  and  conver 
sation  upon  these  subjects,  and  would  wish  you  always  to 
converse  with  me  in  the  freest  and  most  unreserved  manner 
upon  any  subject  that  may  be  of  importance  to  you,  nay  even 
upon  the  choice  of  a  companion  as  well  as  a  business  for  life, 
as  occasion  may  offer.  For  there  is  nothing  pleases  me  better 
than  a  decent,  open,  and  unreserved  freedom.  You  will  make 
allowance  for  the  extreme  haste  of  my  writing.  It  is  now 
half  an  hour  past  12,  and  high  time  to  break  up,  so  I  con 
clude.  With  our  hearty  love  to  you, 
Dear  son, 

Your  most  tender  and  affectionate  father, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

The  answer  to  this  letter  caused  the  father  to  write 
another  with  more  advice  about  plans  for  the  future  ; 
and  he  addressed  it  to  his  son  at  Guilford,  where  he 
would  stop  on  his  return  to  visit  relations.  It  closed 
the  correspondence,  and  nothing  more  was  needed  to 
fix  him  in  the  choice  of  a  profession :  — 

STRATFORD,  July  7,  1747. 

DEAR  SON,  —  I  do  not  now  write  to  you  as  at  Boston, 
having  been  informed  you  was  to  leave  it  this  week.  How- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  151 

ever  as  writing  rather  than  speaking  may  be  most  agreeable 
to  you  on  some  of  the  subjects  of  your  letter,  I  send  this  to 
meet  you  on  the  road. 

Methinks  you  are  rather  too  severe  upon  that  instance  of 
human  frailty  which  is  called  Love.  I  believe  there  are 
few  of  us  without  some  tincture  of  distraction,  and  I  take 
that  to  be  a  species  of  it,  which,  in  some  degrees,  of  which 
there  have  been  many  instances,  deserves  as  great  a  compas 
sion  and  tenderness  as  any  other  kind  of  distraction,  it  being 
sometimes  equally  impossible  even  for  a  good  genius  to  be 
master  of  himself  in  that  case,  as  in  any  other  case  of  distrac 
tion,  which  makes  it  a  matter  of  great  importance  with  re 
gard  to  that,  as  well  as  other  dangers,  to  think  much  of  the 
Apostle's  aphorism,  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take 
heed  lest  he  fall. 

I  am  pleased  with  the  declaration  you  make  of  your  sense 
and  resolution  about  Free  Thinking.  Indeed  I  have  thought 
(nor  am  I  yet  secure)  that  you  are  in  too  much  danger  of  it, 
I  mean  in  the  bad  sense  ;  instances  of  which,  you  complain 
you  have  met  with.  But  it  is  rather  too  cold  an  expression 
you  use,  that  the  more  you  know  of  this  humor  the  less  you 
esteem  it.  This  seems  to  imply  as  if  you  had  had  too  much  of 
a  favor  for  it,  and  upon  the  experience  and  observations  you 
have  had  opportunity  to  make  of  it,  I  should  hope  you  might 
have  said,  the  more  you  know  of  it  the  more  you  abhor  it. 

You  suspect  my  tenderness  may  carry  me  too  far.  It  may 
have  been  so  in  some  instances.  It  is  a  pardonable  esteem, 
for  which  I  hope  you  know  how  to  make  allowances.  But 
give  me  leave  to  say,  that  there  is  at  least  as  great  a  danger 
in  youth  of  being  too  secure  and  self-sufficient ;  and,  in  con 
sequence  of  that,  of  thinking  too  hardly  of  the  caution  and 
anxiety  of  age,  and  being  not  sufficiently  sensible  of  the  great 
advantage  which  age  has  of  youth,  in  having  gone  through  a 
long  course  of  experience,  and  having  had  larger  opportuni 
ties  of  trial,  both  of  the  treachery  of  a  tempting  world,  and  of 
the  instability  and  deceitfulness  of  the  heart  of  man,  —  our 
own  as  well  as  that  of  others  ;  and  consequently  of  the  great 


152  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

dangers  to  which  youth  is  particularly  exposed,  and  of  which 
it  is  not  sufficiently  aware. 

I  did  not  allege  the  case  of  Mathematics,  as  being  at  all 
concerned  with  choosing  a  course  of  life  (as  you  seem  to  un 
derstand  me),  but  only  as  a  case,  wherein  a  choice  being  made 
of  any  pursuit,  even  though  somewhat  against  the  grain,  a 
resolute  practice  and  application  might,  as  I  experienced,  ren 
der  it  not  only  tolerable  but  even  delightful. 

Perhaps  it  is  only  the  knowledge  of  yourself  as  you  now 
are,  in  the  heat  of  youth,  that  makes  you  apprehensive  that 
you  are  not  well  calculated  for  Divinity  (of  which  you  give 
so  just  an  encomium).  I  doubt  not  but  with  a  careful  man 
agement  of  yourself,  you  will  in  a  few  years  grow  more  se 
date,  and  your  taste  may  mucli  alter.  However,  as  you  pro 
fess  that  you  have  no  notion  of  hurrying  into  life,  you  will 
do  well  to  study  law  industriously  two  or  three  years.  I 
would  only  observe,  that  so  far  as  temper  and  disposition  and 
conduct  in  life  are  concerned,  such  a  management  of  them  as 
is  necessary  to  make  a  good  Christian  will  be  equally  consist 
ent  with  being  a  divine  ;  and  if  you  should  not  follow  divin 
ity  as  your  profession,  I  beg  to  depend  that  your  conduct  be 
such  as  would  be  an  ornament  to  it,  and  that  you  so  order 
your  manner  of  life,  as  vastly  more  to  serve  than  disserve 
that  cause  ;  much  less  would  I  fear  as  you  seem  to  do,  that 
if  you  were  a  divine  you  should  do  more  hurt  than  good 
to  it. 

You  abhor  the  thought  of  making  a  woman  unhappy,  i.  e., 
in  matrimony,  or  a  family  miserable.  You  are  very  right  in 
this,  and  I  hope  I  may  take  this  as  a  good  omen  that  you  are 
resolute  (and  then  you  will  succeed  in  it)  so  to  act  your  part 
in  life,  as  will  not  fail  by  God's  blessing  to  make  all  those 
happy  in  a  good  measure  to  whom  you  may  ever  be  related. 
And  I  would  hope  the  same  tenderness  for  that  tender  and 
unwary  sex  will  always  make  you  equally  careful  while  you 
are  in  a  state  of  celibacy  to  guard  against  anything  that  may 
have  the  least  tendency  to  make  any  of  them  miserable,  which 
often  proves  the  effect  of  a  frequent  intercourse  with  them 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  153 

when  no  thoughts  of  anything  further  than  mere  conversation 
are  intended.  This  is  an  affair  of  great  tenderness,  and  has 
occasioned  in  time  past  a  great  deal  of  grief  to  me,  and  were 
I  to  go  over  life  again  I  would  never  frequently  or  much  con 
verse  with  a  person  I  had  not  even  remote  thoughts  of  mak 
ing  a  partner  in  life,  or  when  I  was  in  no  condition  for  it. 

You  say  you  are  not  worth  a  farthing,  etc.  It  is  true  you 
are  not  in  possession,  but  whenever  you  are  disposed  to  settle 
yourself,  I  can  spare  you  2,000  pounds  worth  of  lands  to  dis 
pose  of  for  that  purpose,  and  hope  in  God's  time  I  may  leave 
you  at  least  as  much  more.  Meantime,  I  am, 
Your  most  affectionate  father, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

In  the  year  1749  a  project  was  set  on  foot  to  estab 
lish  a  college  at  Philadelphia,  and  several  gentlemen 
of  the  first  rank  in  the  province  gave  it  their  sup 
port.  One  of  this  number  was  the  celebrated  Benja 
min  Franklin,  who  drew  up  and  published  the  original 
proposals  for  erecting  the  English,  Latin,  and  Math 
ematical  schools  of  the  institution  under  the  name  of 
an  Academy,  "  which  was  considered  as  a  very  proper 
foundation  on  which  to  raise  something  further  at  a 
future  period  if  these  should  be  successful."  He  con 
sulted  Dr.  Johnson,  for  whose  opinion  on  such  mat 
ters  he  had  the  highest  respect,  about  the  plan  of 
education ;  and  was  very  urgent  to  get  him  to  assume 
the  Presidency,  and  for  this  purpose,  in  company  with 
another  gentleman,  visited  him  at  Stratford.  A  sim 
ilar  movement  was  begun  about  the  same  time  in 
New  York,  and  Johnson,  in  writing  to  his  fast  friend, 
Bishop  Berkeley,  desired  his  good  offices  and  "  advice 
upon  the  undertaking."  The  following  letter  in  reply 
was  inclosed  to  Dr.  Franklin,  that  he  might  have  the 
benefit  of  the  suggestions  and  thoughts  which  it  con 
tained: — 


154  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

CLOYNE  August  23,  1749. 

REV.  SIR,  —  I  am  obliged  for  the  account  you  have  sent 
me  of  the  prosperous  estate  of  learning  in  your  College  of 
New  Haven.  I  approve  of  the  regulations  made  there,  and 
am  particularly  pleased  to  find  your  sons  have  made  such  a 
progress  as  appears  from  their  elegant  address  to  me  in  the 
Latin  tongue.  It  must  indeed  give  me  a  very  sensible  satis 
faction  to  hear  that  my  weak  endeavors  have  been  of  some 
use  and  service  to  that  part  of  the  world.  I  have  two  letters 
of  yours  at  once  on  my  hands  to  answer,  for  which  business 
of  various  kinds  must  be  my  apology.  As  to  the  first,  wherein 
you  inclosed  a  small  pamphlet  relating  to  tar- water,  I  can 
only  say  in  behalf  of  those  points  in  which  the  ingenious 
author  seems  to  dissent  from  me,  that  I  advance  nothing 
which  is  not  grounded  on  experience,  as  may  be  seen  at  large 
in  Mr.  Prior's  narrative  of  the  effects  of  tar-water,  printed 
three  or  four  years  ago,  and  which  may  be  supposed  to  have 
reached  America. 

For  the  rest,  I  am  glad  to  find  a  spirit  towards  learning 
prevail  in  those  parts,  particularly  New  York,  where  you  say 
a  college  is  projected,  which  has  my  best  wishes.  At  the 
same  time  I  am  sorry  that  the  condition  of  Ireland,  contain 
ing  such  numbers  of  poor  uneducated  people,  for  whose  sake 
Charity  Schools  are  erecting  throughout  the  kingdom,  oblig- 
eth  us  to  draw  charities  from  England ;  so  far  are  we  from 
being  able  to  extend  our  bounty  to  New  York,  a  country  in 
proportion  much  richer  than  our  own.  But  as.  you  are 
pleased  to  desire  my  advice  upon  this  undertaking,  I  send  the 
following  hints  to  be  enlarged  and  improved  by  your  own 
judgment. 

I  would  not  advise  the  applying  to  England  for  charters 
or  statutes  (which  might  cause  great  trouble,  expense,  and 
delay),  but  to  do  the  business  quietly  within  themselves. 

I  believe  it  may  suffice  to  begin  with  a  President  and  two 
Fellows.  If  they  can  procure  but  three  fit  persons,  I  doubt 
not  the  college  from  the  smallest  beginnings  would  soon  grow 
considerable :  I  should  conceive  good  hopes  were  you  at  the 
head  of  it. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  155 

Let  them  by  all  means  supply  themselves  out  of  the  semi 
naries  in  New  England.  For  I  am  very  apprehensive  none 
can  be  got  in  Old  England  (who  are  willing  to  go)  worth 
sending. 

Let  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics  be  well  taught.  Be 
this  the  first  care  as  to  learning.  But  the  principal  care 
must  be  good  life  and  morals  to  which  (as  well  as  to  study) 
early  hours  and  temperate  meals  will  much  conduce. 

If  the  terms  for  degrees  are  the  same  as  in  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  this  would  give  credit  to  the  College,  and  pave 
the  way  for  admitting  their  graduates  ad  eundem  in  the 
English  universities. 

Small  premiums  in  books,  or  distinctions  in  habit,  may 
prove  useful  encouragements  to  the  students. 

I  would  advise  that  the  building  be  regular,  plain,  and 
cheap,  and  that  each  student  have  a  small  room  (about  ten 
feet  square)  to  himself. 

I  recommended  this  nascent  seminary  to  an  English  bish 
op,  to  try  what  might  be  done  there.  But  by  his  answer  it 
seems  the  colony  is  judged  rich  enough  to  educate  its  own 
youth. 

Colleges  from  small  beginnings  grow  great  by  subsequent 
bequests  and  benefactions.  A  small  matter  will  suffice  to 
set  one  a  going.  And  when  this  is  once  well  done,  there  is  no 
doubt  it  will  go  on  and  thrive.  The  chief  concern  must  be 
to  set  out  in  a  good  method,  and  introduce,  from  the  very 
first,  a  good  taste  into  the  society.  For  this  end  the  princi 
pal  expense  should  be  in  making  a  handsome  provision  for 
the  President  and  Fellows. 

I  have  thrown  together  these  few  crude  thoughts  for  you 
to  ruminate  upon  and  digest  in  your  own  judgment,  and 
propose  from  yourself,  as  you  see  convenient. 

My  correspondence  with  patients  who  drink  tar  water, 
obliges  me  to  be  less  punctual  in  corresponding  with  my 
friends.  But  I  shall  be  always  glad  to  hear  from  you.  My 
sincere  good  wishes  and  prayers  attend  you  in  all  your  laud 
able  undertakings. 

I  am  your  faithful,  humble  servant,  G.  CLOYNE. 


156  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

The  Philadelphia  gentlemen  matured  their  plans, 
and  the  subscriptions  obtained  for  carrying  them  out 
were  a  strong  proof  of  the  public  spirit  and  generos 
ity  of  their  fellow-citizens.  The  hints  of  Berkeley1 
appear  to  have  been  carefully  studied,  and  Johnson 
was  importuned  to  become  the  head  of  an  institu 
tion  which  he  showed  himself  so  well  qualified  to 
direct,  and  which  promised  to  be  such  a  nursery  of 
classic  and  Christian  learning. 

1  The  memory  of  this  distinguished  prelate  as  interested  in  Christian  Education  is 
perpetuated  in  Connecticut.  His  name  designates  one  of  its  most  useful  and  pros 
perous  Institutions,  —  the  "Berkeley  Divinity  School  "  at  Middletown,  incorporated 
in  1854,  and  conducted,  since  its  foundation,  under  the  immediate  charge  of  the 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese, 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  167 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  FRANKLIN  ;  DECLINES  PHILADELPHIA  ; 
"  ELEMENTA  PHILOSOPHICA  "  ;  DEATH  OF  BERKELEY  AND 
LETTER  FROM  HIS  SON;  ENGLISH  EDITION  OF  "ELEMENTS  OF 
PHILOSOPHY"  ;  SPECULATIVE  INQUIRIES,  AND  NOTIONS  ABOUT 
EDUCATION. 

A.  D.  1750-1754. 

THE  fondness  of  Johnson  for  learning  and  colleges 
induced  him  to  take  into  serious  consideration  the 
overtures  from  Philadelphia.  They  were  urged  upon 
him  in  a  way  which  made  them  somewhat  attractive, 
but  his  reluctance  to  leave  the  region  of  his  nativity 
and  separate  himself  from  the  cherished  associations 
of  his  brethren  formed  a  great  obstacle  to  their  ac 
ceptance.  He  spoke  freely  of  his  age  as  against  the 
change,  and  did  not  think  it  was  warranted  by  the 
prospect  of  increased  usefulness  and  better  pecun 
iary  support.  Dr.  Franklin's  letters  to  him  present 
the  subject  very  fully,  and  show  the  points  on  which 
Johnson  dwelt  in  his  replies.  The  first  that  has  been 
preserved  is  dated  :  — 

PHILADELPHIA,  Aug.  9,  1750. 

REV.  SIR, —  At  my  return  home  I  found  your  favor  of 
June  the  28th,  with  the  Bishop  of  Cloyne's  letter  inclosed, 
which  I  will  take  care  of,  and  beg  leave  to  keep  a  little 
longer. 

Mr.  Francis,  our  Attorney  General,  who  was  with  me 
at  your  house,  from  the  conversation  then  had  with  you, 
and  reading  some  of  your  pieces,  has  conceived  an  esteem 


158  LIFE    AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

for  you  equal  to  mine.  The  character  we  have  given  of  you 
to  the  other  trustees,  and  the  sight  of  your  letters  relating 
to  the  academy,  has  made  them  very  desirous  of  engaging 
you  in  that  design,  as  a  person  whose  experience  and  judg 
ment  would  be  of  great  use  in  forming  rules  and  establish 
ing  good  methods  in  the  beginning,  and  whose  name  for 
learning  would  give  it  a  reputation.  We  only  lament,  that 
in  the  infant  state  of  our  funds,  we  cannot  make  you  an 
offer  equal  to  your  merit.  But  as  the  view  of  being  useful 
has  most  .weight  with  generous  and  benevolent  minds,  and  in 
this  affair  you  may  do  great  service  not  only  to  the  present 
but  to  future  generations,  I  flatter  myself  sometimes  that 
if  you  were  here,  and  saw  things  as  they  are,  and  con 
versed  a  little  with  our  people,  you  might  be  prevailed  with 
to  remove.  I  would  therefore  earnestly  press  you  to  make 
us  a  visit  as  soon  as  you  conveniently  can  ;  and  in  the  mean 
time  let  me  represent  to  you  some  of  the  circumstances  as 
they  appear  to  me. 

1.  The  Trustees  of  the  Academy  are  applying  for  a  char 
ter,  which  will  give  an  opportunity  of  improving  and  mod 
eling  our  constitution  in  such  a  manner  as,  when  we  have 
your  advice,  shall  appear   best.     I   suppose  we   shall   have 
power  to  form  a  regular  college. 

2.  If  you  would  undertake  the  management  of  the  English 
Education,  I  am  satisfied  the   trustees  would,  on   your  ac 
count,  make  the  salary  ,£100  sterling,   (they  have  already 
voted  .£150  currency  which  is  not  far  from  it),  and  pay  the 
charge  of  your  removal.     Your  son  might  also  be  employed 
as  tutor  at  £60  or  perhaps  £70  per  annum. 

3.  It  has  been  long  observed,  that  our  church  is  not  suf 
ficient  to  accommodate  near  the  number  of  people  who  would 
willingly  have  seats  there.     The  buildings  increase  very  fast 
towards  the  south  end  of  the  town,  and  many  of  the  princi 
pal  merchants  now  live  there ;  which  being  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  present  church,  people  begin  to  talk  much 
of  building  another,  and  ground  has  been  offered  as  a  gift 
for  that  purpose.     The  Trustees  of  the  Academy  are  three 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  159 

fourths  of  them  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  the 
rest  men  of  moderate  principles.  They  have  reserved  in  the 
building  a  large  hall  for  occasional  preaching,  public  lectures, 
orations,  etc. ;  it  is  70  feet  by  60,  furnished  with  a  handsome 
pulpit,  seats,  etc.  In  this  Mr.  Tennent  collected  his  congre 
gation,  who  are  now  building  him  a  meeting-house.  In  the 
same  place,  by  giving  now  and  then  a  lecture,  you  might, 
with  equal  ease,  collect  a  congregation  that  would  in  a  short 
time  build  you  a  church,  if  it  should  be  agreeable  to  you. 

In  the  mean  time,  I  imagine  you  will  receive  something 
considerable  yearly,  arising  from  marriages  and  christenings 
in  the  best  families,  etc.,  not  to  mention  presents  that  are  not 
unfrequent  from  a  wealthy  people  to  a  minister  they  like  ; 
and  though  the  whole  may  not  amount  to  more  than  a  due 
support,  yet  I  think  it  will  be  a  comfortable  one.  And 
when  you  are  well  settled  in  a  church  of  your  own,  your  son 
may  be  qualified  by  years  and  experience  to  succeed  you  in 
the  Academy  ;  or  if  you  rather  choose  to  continue  in  the 
Academy,  your  son  might  probably  be  fixed  in  the  Church. 

These  are  my  private  sentiments  which  I  have  commu 
nicated  only  to  Mr.  Francis,  who  entirely  agrees  with  me. 
I  acquainted  the  trustees  that  I  would  write  to  you,  but 
could  give  them  no  dependence  that  you  would  be  prevailed 
on  to  remove.  They  will,  however,  treat  with  no  other  till 
I  have  your  answer. 

You  will  see  by  our  newspaper,  which  I  inclose,  that  the 
Corporation  of  this  city  have  voted  £200  down  and  £100  a 
year  out  of  their  revenues  to  the  Trustees  of  the  Academy. 
As  they  are  a  perpetual  body,  choosing  their  own  successors, 
and  so  not  subject  to  be  changed  by  the  caprice  of  a  gov 
ernor  or  of  the  people,  and  as  18  of  the  members  (some  the 
most  leading)  are  of  the  trustees,  we  look  on  this  donation  to 
be  as  good  as  so  much  real  estate  ;  being  confident  it  will  be 
continued  as  long  as  it  is  well  applied,  and  even  increased,  if 
there  should  be  occasion.  We  have  now  near  £5,000  sub 
scribed,  and  expect  some  considerable  sums  besides  may  be 
procured  from  the  merchants  of  London  trading  hither.  And 


160  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

as  we  are  in  the  centre  of  the  Colonies,  a  healthy  place,  with 
plenty  of  provisions,  we  suppose  a  good  academy  here  may 
draw  numbers  of  youth  for  education  from  the  neighbor 
ing  Colonies,  and  even  from  the  West  Indies. 

I  will  shortly  print  proposals  for  publishing  your  pieces 
by  subscription,  and  disperse  them  among  my  friends  along 
the  continent.     My  compliments  to  Mrs.  Johnson  and  your 
son  ;  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walker  your  good  neighbors. 
I  am,  with  great  esteem  and  respect,  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

B.  FRANKLIN. 

P.  S.  There  are  some  other  things  best  treated  of  when 
we  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you.  It  begins  now  to  be 
pleasant  travelling.  I  wish  you  would  conclude  to  visit  us 
in  the  next  month  at  farthest.  Whether  the  journey  pro 
duce  the  effect  we  desire  or  not,  it  shall  be  no  expense  to  you. 

The  Eev.  Richard  Peters,  though  he  had  no  per 
sonal  acquaintance  with  him,  wrote  him  on  the  same 
day,  and  invited  him  to  his  house.  Mr.  Peters  was 
an  Englishman  of  culture  and  good  manners,  who 
came  to  this  country  in  Holy  Orders,  with  his  young 
wife,  and  served  for  a  time  as  an  assistant  in  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia.  He  afterwards  accepted  the 
appointment  of  Provincial  Secretary,  and  acquired  a 
considerable  fortune,  but  did  not  relinquish  his  minis 
terial  character,  and  continued  occasionally  to  per 
form  clerical  duty.  The  letter  below  has  allusion  to 
his  official  position  in  the  government  which  he  still 
held  :  - 

PHILADELPHIA,  Aug.  9,  1750. 

REVEREND  SIR,  —  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  the  honor  you 
did  me  in  your  compliments  by  Mr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Fran 
cis.  They  said  so  many  good  things  of  your  abilities  and 
inclinations  to  promote  useful  knowledge,  and  the  Trustees 
of  the  Academy  are  so  much  in  want  of  your  advice  and 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  161 

assistance,  that,  though  personally  unknown  to  you,  I  must 
take  the  freedom,  from  a  hint  that  such  a  journey  would 
not  be  disagreeable  to  you,  to  give  you  an  invitation  to  my 
house.  Let  me,  good  Sir,  have  the  pleasure  of  conversing 
with  a  gentleman  whose  character  I  have  a  long  time  es 
teemed,  and  provided  your  journey  be' not  between  the  20th 
October  and  1st  November,  when  I  am  obliged  to  attend  the 
Governor  and  Assembly  at  New  Castle,  I  will  meet  you  at 
Trenton  or  Brunswick,  or  any  other  place  you  shall  appoint. 
I  will  tell  you  beforehand,  that  can  my  friends  or  I  find  any 
expedient  to  engage  your  residence  among  us,  I  will  leave 
nothing  unattempted  in  the  power  of,  Reverend  Sir, 
Your  affectionate  brother  and  humble  servant, 

RICHAKD  PETERS. 
Johnson  replied  :  — 

Aug.  16. 

Sm,  —  I  am  extremely  obliged  to  you  for  the  honor  you 
have  done  me  in  writing  so  kind  and  polite  a  letter  to  me, 
who  am  a  perfect  stranger  to  you,  and  a  person  whose  real 
character  I  doubt  you  will  find  much  below  what  the  can 
dor  of  the  openly  friendly  gentlemen  have  represented.  You 
will  see  by  my  letter  to  Mr.  Franklin  what  difficulties  lie  in 
my  way  with  regard  to  my  residence  among  you,  which  oth 
erwise  would,  doubtless,  be  vastly  agreeable  to  me.  How 
ever,  as  I  do  think  in  earnest,  if  practicable,  to  make  a  tour 
to  Philadelphia  in  acknowledgment  of  the  great  kindness  you 
express  towards  me,  I  shall  most  gratefully  accept  of  your 
kind  invitation,  and  let  you  know  beforehand  when  to  ex 
pect  me.  If  I  can  come  at  all  it  will  be  before  the  time 
you  mention,  but  I  would  first  see  my  brethren  here  together 
at  our  Commencement  on  the  2d  week  in  Sept.,  by  convers 
ing  with  whom  I  shall  be  the  better  able  to  make  a  judg 
ment  whether  a  remove  would  be  practicable.  Meantime, 
I  remain,  Sir,  etc., 

S.  J. 

The  next  letter  of  Franklin,  so  characteristic  of 

the  man?  goes  more  deeply  into  the  objections  which 
11 


162  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

Johnson  had  raised,  and  intimates  to  him  that  his  "  tal 
ents  for  the  education  of  youth  were  the  gift  of  God," 
and  it  was  his  duty  to  employ  them  for  the  public 
service.1  It  shows  too  the  writer's  practical  wisdom 
in  regard  to  the  extension  of  the  Church :  — 

PHILADELPHIA,  Aug.  23,  1750. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  We  received  your  favor  of  the  16th  inst. 
Mr.  Peters  will  hardly  have  time  to  write  to  you  per  this 
post,  and  I  must  be  short.  Mr.  Francis  spent  the  last  even 
ing  with  me,  and  we  were  all  glad  to  hear  that  you  seriously 
meditate  a  visit  after  the  middle  of  next  month,  and  that 
you  will  inform  us  by  a  line  when  to  expect  you.  We 
drank  your  health  and  Mrs.  Johnson's,  remembering  your 
kind  entertainment  of  us  at  Stratford. 

I  think,  with  you,  that  nothing  is  of  more  importance  for 
the  public  weal,  than  to  form  and  train  up  youth  in  wis 
dom  and  virtue.  Wise  and  good  men  are,  in  my  opinion, 
the  strength  of  a  state  far  more  so  than  riches  or  arms,  which, 
under  the  management  of  ignorance  and  wickedness,  often 
draw  on  destruction,  instead  of  promoting  the  safety  of  a 
people.  And  though  the  culture  bestowed  on  youth  be  suc 
cessful  only  with  a  few,  yet  the  influence  of  those  few,  for 
the  service  in  their  power,  may  be  very  great.  Even  a  sin 
gle  woman,  that  was  wise,  by  her  wisdom  saved  a  city. 

I  think,  also,  that  general  virtue  is  more  probably  to  be  ex 
pected  and  obtained  from  the  education  of  youth  than  from 
the  exhortation  of  adult  persons  ;  bad  habits  and  vices  of  the 
mind  being,  like  diseases  of  the  body,  more  easily  prevented 
than  cured. 

I  think,  moreover,  that  talents  for  the  education  of  youth 
are  the  gift  of  God  ;  and  that  he  on  whom  they  are  be 
stowed,  whenever  a  way  is  opened  for  the  use  of  them,  is  as 
strongly  called  as  if  he  heard  a  voice  from  heaven.  Nothing 
more  surely  pointing  out  duty,  in  a  public  service,  than  abil 
ity  and  opportunity  of  performing  it. 

1  This  letter  was  first  printed  in  the  Port  Folio,  1809,  and  it  also  appears  in  Sparks' 
Works  of  Franklin,  vol.  vii.  pp.  47-50. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  163 

I  have  not  yet  discoursed  with  Dr.  Jenney  concerning  your 
removal  hither.  You  have  reason,  I  own,  to  doubt  whether 
your  coming  on  the  foot  I  proposed  would  not  be  disagree 
able  to  him,  though  I  think  it  ought  not.  For  should  his 
particular  interest  be  somewhat  affected  by  it,  that  ought  not 
to  stand  in  competition  with  the  general  good ;  especially  as 
it  cannot  be  much  affected,  he  being  old,  and  rich,  and  with 
out  children.  I  will  however  learn  his  sentiments  before  the 
next  post.  But  whatever  influence  they  might  have  on  your 
determinations  about  removing,  they  need  have  none  on  your 
intention  of  visiting.  And  if  you  favor  us  with  the  visit,  it 
is  not  necessary  that  you  should  previously  write  to  him  to 
learn  his  dispositions  about  your  removal,  since  you  will  see 
him,  and  when  we  are  all  together  those  things  may  be  better 
settled  in  conversation  than  by  letters  at  a  distance.  Your 
tenderness  of  the  Church's  peace  is  truly  laudable  ;  but,  me- 
thinks,  to  build  a  new  church  in  a  growing  place  is  not 
properly  dividing  but  multiplying ;  and  will  really  be  a 
means  of  increasing  the  number  of  those  who  worship  God 
in  that  way.  Many  who  cannot  now  be  accommodated  in 
the  church  go  to  other  places  or  stay  at  home ;  and  if  we 
had  another  church,  many,  who  go  to  other  places  or  stay  at 
home,  would  go  to  church.  I  suppose  the  interest  of  the 
Church  has  been  far  from  suffering  in  Boston  by  the  building 
of  two  new  churches  there  in  my  memory.  I  had  for  several 
years  nailed  against  the  wall  of  my  house,  a  pigeon-box  that 
would  hold  six  pair ;  and  though  they  bred  as  fast  as  my 
neighbor's  pigeons,  I  never  had  more  than  six  pair ;  the  old 
and  strong  driving  out  the  young  and  weak,  and  obliging 
them  to  seek  new  habitations.  At  length  I  put  up  an  addi 
tional  box,  with  apartments  for  entertaining  twelve  pair  more, 
and  it  was  soon  filled  with  inhabitants,  by  the  overflowings  of 
my  first  box  and  of  others  in  the  neighborhood.  This  I  take 
to  be  a  parallel  case  with  the  building  a  new  church  here. 

Your  years,  I  think,  are  not  so  many  as  to  be  an  objection 
of  any  weight,  especially  considering  the  vigor  of  your  con 
stitution.  For  the  small-pox,  if  it  should  spread  here,  you 


164  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

might  inoculate  with  great  probability  of  safety  ;  and  I  think 
that  distemper  generally  more  favorable  here  than  further 
northward.  Your  objection  about  the  politeness  of  Philadel 
phia,  and  your  imagined  rusticity,  is  mere  compliment ;  and 
your  diffidence  of  yourself  absolutely  groundless. 

My  humble  respects,  if  you  please,  to  your  brethren  at  the 
Commencement.  I  hope  they  will  advise  you  to  what  is  most 
for  the  good  of  the  whole,  and  then  I  think  they  will  advise 
you  to  move  hither. 

Please   to  tender  my  best  respects   and  service   to  Mrs. 
Johnson  and  your  son. 
I  am,  dear  Sir, 

Your  obliged  and  affectionate,  humble  serv*, 

B.  FRANKLIN. 

Illness  prevented  Johnson  from  making  his  contem 
plated  visit.  Franklin  wrote  him  again  and  gave  up 
ull  expectation  of  seeing  him  immediately,  as  the 
small-pox  was  spreading  in  the  city,  and  it  would  not 
be  prudent  to  expose  himself  to  its  dangers :  — 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  am  sorry  to  hear  of  your  illness.  If  you 
have  not  been  used  to  the  f ever-and-ague  let  me  give  you  one 
caution.  Don't  imagine  yourself  thoroughly  cured,  and  so 
omit  the  use  of  the  bark  too  soon.  Remember  to  take  the 
preventing  doses  faithfully.  If  you  were  to  continue  taking 
a  dose  or  two  every  day  for  two  or  three  weeks  after  the  fits 
have  left  you,  'twould  not  be  amiss.  If  you  take  the  powder 
mixed  quick  in  a  tea-cup  of  milk,  'tis  no  way  disagreeable, 
but  looks  and  even  tastes  like  chocolate.  'Tis  an  old  saying: 
That  an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure,  —  and 
certainly  a  true  one,  with  regard  to  the  bark  ;  a  little  of 
which  will  do  more  in  preventing  the  fits  than  a  great  deal  in 
removing  them. 

But  if  your  health  would  permit  I  should  not  expect  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  you  soon.  The  small-pox  spreads  apace, 
and  is  now  in  all  quarters  ;  yet  as  we  have  only  children  to 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  165 

have  it,  and  our  Doctors  inoculate  apace,  I  believe  they  will 
soon  drive  it  through  the  town ;  so  that  you  may  possibly 
visit  us  with  safety  in  the  spring.  In  the  mean  time  we 
should  be  glad  to  know  the  result  you  came  to  after  con 
sulting  your  brethren  at  the  Commencement.  Messrs.  Peters 
and  Francis  have  directed  me  on  all  occasions  to  present  their 
compliments  to  you.  Please  to  acquaint  me  if  you  propose 
to  make  any  considerable  additions  to  the  "  Ethics,"  that  I 
may  be  able  in  the  proposals  to  compute  the  bigness  of  the 
book. 

I  am,  with  sincere  esteem  and  respect,  dear  Sir, 
Your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 

B.  FKANKLIN. 

PHILADELPHIA,  September  13,  1750. 

Inclosed  I  return  the  good  Bishop's  letter  with  thanks. 

Before  this  correspondence  was  begun,  Dr.  Johnson 
received  a  second  invitation  to  the  Rectorship  of 
Trinity  Church,  Newport,  made  vacant  by  the  death 
of  his  friend,  the  Rev.  James  Honyman.  But  he  felt 
that  his  removal  would  prejudice  the  interests  of  the 
Church  in  Connecticut,  and  he  finally  declined  it,  and 
suggested  to  the  Vestry  whether  it  would  not  be  ad 
visable  to  think  of  Dr.  Cutler's  son  for  the  place.  He 
had  been  a  long  time  officiating  in  England,  and 
was  "  doubtless/'  he  said,  "  very  well  experienced  and 
accomplished."  The  same  motive  which  led  him  to 
decline  Newport  helped  him  to  come  to  a  determina 
tion  about  Philadelphia.  He  had  been  quite  ready 
to  give  his  friends  there  the  benefit  of  his  counsels  in 
regard  to  their  Institution ;  but  the  following  letters 
were  the  last  that  related  to  the  acceptance  of  their 
proposals. 


166  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

PHILADELPHIA,  December  24,  1751. 

DEAR  SIR, —  I  received  your  favor  of  the  llth  inst.  and 
thank  you  for  the  hint  you  give  of  the  omission  in  the 
44  Idea."  The  "Sacred  Classics"  are  read  in  the  English 
school,  though  I  forgot  to  mention  them.  And  I  shall  pro 
pose  at  the  meeting  of  the  Schools,  after  the  Holidays,  that 
the  English  master  begin  and  continue  to  read  select  portions 
of  them  daily  with  the  prayers  as  you  advise. 

But  if  you  can  be  thus  useful  to  us  at  this  distance,  how 
much  more  might  you  be  so  if  you  were  present  with  us, 
and  had  the  immediate  inspection  and  government  of  the 
schools.  I  wrote  to  you  in  my  last  that  Mr.  Martin  our 
Rector  died  suddenly  of  a  quinsy.  His  body  was  carried  to 
the  Church,  respectfully  attended  by  the  trustees,  all  the 
masters  and  scholars  in  their  order,  and  a  great  number  of 
the  citizens.  Mr.  Peters  preached  his  funeral  sermon,  and 
gave  him  the  just  and  honorable  character  he  deserved. 
The  schools  are  now  broke  up  for  Christmas,  and  will  not 
meet  again  till  the  7th  of  January.  Mr.  Peters  took  care 
of  the  Latin  and  Greek  School  after  Mr.  Martin's  death 
till  the  breaking  up.  And  Mr.  Allison,  a  dissenting  min 
ister,  has  promised  to  continue  that  care  for  a  month  after 
their  next  meeting.  Is  it  impossible  for  you  to  make  us  a 
visit  in  that  time  ?  I  hope  by  the  next  post  to  know  some 
thing  of  your  sentiments,  that  I  may  be  able  to  speak  more 
positively  to  the  Trustees  concerning  the  probability  of  your 
being  prevailed  with  to  remove  hither. 

The  English  master  is  Mr.  Dove,  a  gentleman  about  your 
age,  who  formerly  taught  grammar  sixteen  years  at  Chiches- 
ter  in  England.  He  is  an  excellent  master,  and  his  scholars 
have  made  a  surprising  progress. 

I  shall  send  some  of  the  "  (Economies  "  to  Mr.  Havens  per 
next  post.  If  you  have  a  spare  one  of  your  "  Essays  on  the 
Method  of  Study,"  the  English  edition,  please  to  send  it  me. 

My  wife  joins  in  the  compliments  of  the  season  to  you 
and  Mrs.  Johnson,  with,  dear  Sir, 

Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

B.  FRANKLIN 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  167 

Answer :  — 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  now  write  my  most  thankful  acknowledg 
ments  for  your  two  kind  letters  of  December  24  and  January 
8,  and  have  received  your  most  obliging  letters  of  the  sum 
mer  before  last,  to  which  you  refer  me.  There  was  one  of 
August  23,  to  which  I  did  not  make  a  particular  reply  by 
reason  of  my  illness  at  that  time.  In  that  you  reasoned,  I 
own,  in  a  very  forcible  manner  upon  the  head  of  duty.  You 
argued  that  ability,  with  opportunity,  manifestly  pointed  out 
duty,  as  though  it  were  a  voice  from  Heaven.  This,  Sir,  I 
agree  to,  and  therefore  have  always  endeavored  to  use  what 
little  ability  I  have  that  way  in  the  best  manner  I  could, 
having  never  been  without  pupils  of  one  sort  or  other  half 
a  year  at  a  time,  and  seldom  that,  for  thirty-eight  years. 
And,  thank  God,  I  have  the  great  satisfaction  to  see  some  of 
them  in  the  first  pulpits,  not  only  in  Connecticut,  but  also  in 
Boston  and  New  York,  and  others  in  some  of  the  first  places 
in  the  land.  But  I  am  now  plainly  in  the  decline  of  life,  both 
as  to  activity  of  body  and  vigor  of  mind,  and  must,  therefore, 
consider  myself  as  being  an  Emeritus,  and  unfit  for  any  new 
situation  in  the  world  or  to  enter  on  any  new  business,  espe 
cially  at  such  a  distance  from  my  hitherto  sphere  of  action 
and  my  present  situation,  where  I  have  as  much  duty  on  my 
hands  as  I  am  capable  of  and  where  my  removal  would  make 
too  great  a  breach  to  be  countervailed  by  any  good  I  am  ca 
pable  of  doing  elsewhere,  for  which  I  have  but  a  small  chance 
left  for  much  opportunity.  So  that  I  must  beg  my  good 
friends  at  Philadelphia  to  excuse  me,  and  I  pray  God  they 
may  be  directed  to  a  better  choice.  And  as  Providence  has 
so  unexpectedly  provided  so  worthy  a  person  as  Mr.  Dove 
for  your  other  purpose,  I  hope  the  same  good  Providence 
will  provide  for  this.  I  am  not  personally  acquainted  with 
Mr.  Winthrop,  the  Professor  at  Cambridge,  but  by  what  I 
have  heard  of  him,  perhaps  he  might  do.  But  I  rather 
think  it  would  be  your  best  way  to  try  if  you  cannot  get 
some  friend  and  faithful  gentleman  at  home,  of  good  judg- 


168  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

ment  and  care,  to  inquire  and  try  if  some  worthy  Fellow  of 
one  or  other  of  the  Universities  could  not  be  obtained.  Per 
haps  Mr.  Peters  or  Mr.  Dove  may  know  of  some  acquaint 
ance  of  theirs,  that  might  do  likely :  dulcius  ex  ipsis  fortibus. 
Your  son  intimated  that  you  had  thought  of  a  voyage  home 
yourself  ;  if  you  should  you  might  undoubtedly  look  out  a 
fit  person  to  be  had,  and  you  had  better  do  as  you  can  for 
some  time  than  not  be  well  provided.  I  could,  however,  wish 
to  make  you  a  visit  in  the  Spring,  if  the  way  were  safe,  but 
it  seems  the  small-pox  is  propagating  at  New  York,  and  per 
haps  you  will  be  scarcely  free  of  it.  Meantime  you  have,  in 
deed,  my  heart  with  you  as  though  I  were  ever  so  much  with 
you  in  presence,  and  if  there  were  any  good  office  in  my 
power  you  might  freely  command  it. 

I  thank  you  for  sending  the  two  sheets  of  my  "  Noetica  " 
which  are  done  with  much  care.  I  find  no  defects  worth 
mentioning  but  what  were  probably  my  own.  At  page  62, 1. 
19,  there  should  have  been  a  (;)  after  "  universal,"  and  1.  21 
a  (;)  after  "  affirmative."  On  reviewing  the  former  sheets  I 
observe  a  neglect,  p.  30, 1.  24,  "  on  account  of  which,"  and  p. 
36, 1.  3,  there  should  be  a  (,)  aftes  "  is."  * 

I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  Short  and  the  Almanac 
and  my  wife  for  hers.  I  have  had  five  parcels  of  the  "  (Econ 
omies  "  and  Fisher.  I  think  you  told  me  they  were  a  dollar 
each  parcel,  besides  that  of  Havens,  who  desires  you  to  send 
him  another  parcel,  and  begs  you  to  send  one  or  more  of 
your  pieces  on  "Electricity,"  published  in  England.  By  your 
son's  account  I  am  much  charmed  with  this,  and  beg  if  you 
have  a  spare  copy  to  send  it  me.  And  as  you  desire  a  copy 
of  my  "  Introduction,"  since  I  had  many  sent  me  from  home, 
I  send  half  a  dozen,  of  which  with  my  humble  service  to 
Messrs.  Peters  and  Francis  and  your  son,  pray  them  to  accept 
each  a  copy.  My  wife  and  son,  with  me,  desire  our  service 
may  be  acceptable  to  them  and  Mrs.  Franklin  and  your  son. 

I  am,  Sir,  etc. 

S.  J. 

1  In  the  copy  before  me  there  are  pen  corrections  of  these  and  other  errors  by 
Johnson  himself. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  169 

The  work  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  letter  was 
the  "  Elementa  Philosophica :  containing  chiefly  Noet- 
ica,  or  Things  relating  to  the  Mind  or  Understanding ; 
and  Ethica,  or  Things  relating  to  the  Moral  Beha 
viour."  This  was  the  summary  title,  and  three  great 
philosophers  were  grouped  together  in  the  issue  of 
the  work.  It  was  written  by  Johnson,  dedicated, 
"  from  the  deepest  sense  of  gratitude,"  to  the  Bishop 
of  Cloyne,  and  printed  by  Benjamin  Franklin.  The 
first  part,  Nbetica,  was  mainly  new,  prepared  for 
young  beginners  to  show  them  the  principles  of  knowl 
edge  and  the  progress  of  the  human  mind  towards  its 
highest  perfection  ;  and  in  the  advertisement,  Johnson 
said :  "  Though  I  would  not  be  too  much  attached  to 
any  one  author  or  system,  exclusive  of  any  others ; 
yet  whoever  is  versed  in  the  writings  of  Bishop 
Berkeley  will  be  sensible  that  I  am  in  a  particular 
manner  beholden  to  that  excellent  philosopher  for 
several  thoughts  that  occur  in  the  following  Tract." 
The  remaining  part  was  a  second  edition  of  his  "  Sys 
tem  of  Morality,"  described  in  the  previous  chapter. 

The  graceful  dedication  to  Berkeley  was  too  late  to 
be  seen  by  that  eminent  man.  The  correspondence 
between  them  had  been  kept  up,  and  every  opportu 
nity  improved  to  communicate  with  each  other,  as  the 

following  letters  will  show. 

CLOYNE,  July  1 7,  1 750. 

REV.  SIR,  —  A  few  months  ago  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
writing  to  you  and  Mr.  Honyman  by  an  inhabitant  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Government.  I  would  not,  nevertheless,  omit 
the  present  occasion  of  saluting  you,  and  letting  you  know 
that  it  gave  me  great  pleasure  to  hear  from  Mr.  Bourk,  a  pas 
senger  from  those  parts,  that  a  late  sermon  of  yours  at  New 
Haven  hath  had  a  very  good  effect  in  reconciling  several  to 


170  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

the  Church.  I  find  also  by  a  letter  from  Mr.  Clap,  that 
learning  continues  to  make  notable  advances  in  Yale  College. 
This  gives  me  great  satisfaction,  and  that  God  may  bless 
your  worthy  endeavors  and  crown  them  with  success,  is  the 
sincere  prayer  of,  Rev.  Sir, 

Your  faithful  brother  and  obedient  servt, 

G.  CLOYNE. 

P.  S.  I  hope  your  ingenious  sons  are  still  an  ornament  to 
Yale  College,  and  tread  in  their  father's  footsteps. 

Answer:—  December  17. 

MY  LORD,  —  I  yesterday  received  your  Lordship's  most 
kind  letter  of  July  17,  from  New  Haven,  and  as  there  is  a 
vessel  soon  going  from  New  York,  I  take  the  opportunity  of 
making  my  most  humble  acknowledgments  to  your  Lordship, 
though  I  lately  wrote  by  the  way  of  New  York,  my  humble 
thanks  for  your  kind  letter  before  received  which  came  not 
to  hand  till  last  summer.  In  that  letter  I  informed  you  of 
the  death  of  good  Mr.  Honyman,  and  of  the  controversy  be 
tween  the  Governor  of  New  York  and  their  Assembly,  which 
hath  hindered  their  College  from  going  forward,  —  since 
which,  things  have  been  so  far  accommodated  that  they  have 
nominated  the  Trustees,  and  I  hope  they  will  proceed. 
They  are  very  thankful  for  the  notice  you  so  kindly  took 
of  what  I  had  mentioned  to  you  in  their  behalf,  and  will 
form  their  College  upon  the  model  you  suggested  to  me.  I 
intended  to  have  written  by  Mr.  Bourk,  but  he  was  just  going 
when  I  saw  him,  and  I  had  not  time,  nor  had  I  then  re 
ceived  your  Lordship's  last  kind  letter. 

We  should  soon  have  a  flourishing  Church  at  New  Haven,  if 
we  could  get  a  minister,  —  but  the  Secretary  of  the  Society 
writes  very  discouragingly  about  expecting  any  more  ministers 
for  these  parts.  Here  is  one  of  your  Lordship's  scholars,  one 
Colton,1  that  is  a  worthy  candidate,  and  another  equally 
deserving,  one  Camp,2  but  we  cannot  yet  have  leave  for  their 

1  Jonathan  Colton  was  afterwards  admitted  to  Holy  Orders  in  England,  and  died 
on  his  returning  voyage  to  this  country  in  1752. 

2  Ichabod  Camp,  his  companion,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  1743,  was  ordained  at 
the  same  time. 


OF  SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  171 

going  home  for  Orders.  No  endeavors  of  mine  shall  be 
wanting,  my  Lord,  while  I  live,  to  promote  sound  learning 
and  religion  in  these  parts,  and  particularly  your  Lordship's 
excellent  system,  in  order  to  which  I  am  preparing  a  short 
draught  for  the  use  of  pupils,  but  it  will  much  want  your 
Lordship's  correction. 

I  thank  God  iny  sons  yet  give  me  good  hopes,  and  there 
is  scarce  anything  I  want  to  hear  of  more  than  of  Mr.  Harry's 
welfare  and  of  your  Lordship's  family,  for  whom  I  most 
ardently  pray.  I  heartily  thank  your  Lordship  for  your 
prayers  and  good  wishes  for  me  and  mine,  and  beg  the  con 
tinuance  of  them,  and  remain,  my  Lord,  your  Lordship's,  etc. 

S.  J. 

Berkeley  wrote  one  more  letter  to  Johnson,  partly 
in  answer  to  the  foregoing,  and  it  is  believed  to  have 
been  his  last  to  the  great  American  friend  who  never 
ceased  to  love  him  for  his  virtues,  and  to  honor  him 
ibr  his  learning  and  philosophy.  It  was  dated  :  — 

CLOYNE,  July  25,  1751. 

REV.  SIR,  —  I  would  not  let  Mr.  Hall  depart  without  a 
line  from  me  in  acknowledgment  of  your  letter  which  he  put 
into  my  hands.  As  for  Mr.  Hutchinson's  writings,  I  am  not 
acquainted  with  them.  I  live  in  a  remote  corner  where 
many  modern  things  escape  me.  Only  this  I  can  say,  that  I 
have  observed  that  author  to  be  mentioned  as  an  enthusiast, 
which  gave  me  no  prepossession  in  his  favor. 

I  am  glad  to  find  by  Mr.  Clap's  letter,  and  the  speci 
mens  of  literature  inclosed  in  his  packet,  that  learning  con 
tinues  to  make  a  progress  in  Yale  College ,  and  hope  that 
virtue  and  Christian  charity  may  keep  pace  with  it. 

The  letters  which  you  and  Mr.  Clap  say  you  had  written, 
in  answer  to  my  last,  never  came  into  my  hands.  I  am  glad 
to  hear,  by  Mr.  Hall,  of  the  good  health  and  condition  of 
yourself  and  family.  I  pray  God  to  bless  you  and  yours, 
and  prosper  your  good  endeavors.  I  am  Rev.  Sir, 
Your  faithful  friend  and  humble  serv*, 

G.  CLOYNB. 


172  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

As  soon  as  his  "  Elementa  Philosophica  "  was  pub 
lished,  Johnson  wrote  to  Berkeley  and  sent  him  a  copy, 
not  knowing  that  he  had  broken  up  at  Cloyne,  and 
exchanged  its  gloomy  retirement  and  the  life  of  a 
recluse  philosopher  for  the  classic  shades  and  ideal 
beauty  of  Oxford.  His  son  George  had  been  entered 
a  student  at  Christ  Church,  and  parental  tenderness, 
joined  to  other  considerations,1  led  him  to  follow  him 
with  his  family  and  make  his  future  residence  at  the 
seat  of  the  venerable  University  in  the  "  fair  vale  of 
the  Cherwell  and  the  Isis."  The  issue  of  "  Elementa 
Philosophica  "  must  have  been  about  the  time  when  he 
was  settling  his  affairs,  preparatory  to  the  final  depar 
ture  from  Cloyne.  The  following  letter  shows  this  as 
well  as  the  use  to  which  the  work  was  put  and  the  es 
timation  in  which  it  was  held.  It  gives,  moreover,  a 
sketch  of  the  progress  of  the  Institution  of  which 
Johnson  had  declined  the  oversight. 

PHILADELPHIA,  July  2,  —  52. 

REV.  SIR,  —  I  have  sent  you,  via  New  York,  twenty-four 
of  your  books  bound  as  those  I  sent  per  post.  The  remainder 
of  the  fifty  are  binding  in  a  plainer  manner,  and  shall  be  sent 
as  soon  as  done  and  left  at  Mr.  Stuyvesant's  as  you  order. 

Our  Academy,  which  you  so  kindly  inquire  after,  goes  on 
well.  Since  Mr.  Martin's  death  the  Latin  and  Greek  school 
has  been  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Allison,  a  Dissenting  minis 
ter,  well  skilled  in  those  languages  and  long  practiced  in 
teaching.  But  he  refused  the  Rectorship,  or  to  have  any 
thing  to  do  with  the  government  of  the  other  schools.  So 
that  remains  vacant,  and  obliges  the  Trustees  to  more  fre 
quent  visits.  We  have  now  several  young  gentlemen  desir 
ous  of  entering  on  the  study  of  Philosophy,  and  Lectures 
are  to  be  opened  this  week.  Mr.  Allison  undertakes  Logic 

1  See  Fraser'a  Life,  of  Berkeley,  ch.  ix. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  173 

and  Ethics,  making  your  work  his  text  to  comment  and 
lecture  upon.  Mr.  Peters  and  some  other  gentlemen  under 
take  the  other  branches,  till  we  shall  be  provided  with  a 
Rector  capable  of  the  whole,  who  may  attend  wholly  to  the 
instructions  of  youth  in  the  higher  parts  of  learning  as  they 
come  out  fitted  from  the  lower  schools.  Our  proprietors 
have  lately  wrote  that  they  are  extremely  well  pleased  with 
the  design,  will  take  our  Seminary  under  their  patronage, 
give  us  a  charter,  and,  as  an  earnest  of  their  benevolence, 
Five  Hundred  Pounds  sterling.  And  by  our  opening  a 
charity  school,  in  which  near  one  hundred  poor  children  are 
taught  Reading,  Writing,  and  Arithmetic,  with  the  rudi 
ments  of  religion,  we  have  gained  the  general  good  will  of  all 
sorts  of  people,  from  whence  donations  and  bequests  may 
be  reasonably  expected  to  accrue  from  time  to  time.  This  is 
our  present  situation,  and  we  think  it  a  promising  one  ;  es 
pecially  as  the  reputation  of  our  schools  increases,  the  masters 
being  all  very  capable  and  diligent  and  giving  great  satis 
faction  to  all  concerned. 

I  have  heard  of  no  exceptions  yet  made  to  your  work,  nor 
do  I  expect  any,  unless  to  those  parts  that  savor  of  what  is 
called  Berkeley  anism,  which  is  not  well  understood  here. 
When  any  occur  I  shall  communicate  them. 

With  great  esteem  and  respect,  I  am,  dear  Sir, 
Your  obliged  humble  serv*, 

B.  FRANKLIN. 

Berkeley  had  not  long  enjoyed  the  academic  re 
pose  of  Oxford  before  his  family  and  friends  were 
thrown  into  the  deepest  affliction  by  his  sudden  death. 
He  had  received  neither  the  book  nor  the  letter 
from  Johnson  when  it  occurred,  on  the  evening  of 
Sunday,  the  14th  of  January,  1753,  but  the  author 
had  sent  another  copy  of  his  work  to  Dr.  Thos.  Seeker, 
then  Bishop  of  Oxford  and  almost  the  only  survivor 
of  the  distinguished  men  in  England  with  whom 


174  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Berkeley  corresponded  in  his  later  years.  The  funeral 
solemnities  were  scarcely  over  when  he  wrote  to  his 
son  and  apprized  him  of  its  reception  and  offered  it  to 
his  acceptance,  and  he  in  acknowledging  the  Bishop's 
kindness  said  — "  Dr.  Johnson's  book  I  have  not 
seen,  but  shall  be  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  a  copy 
of  it,  as  I  suppose  it  is  not  reprinted  in  England,  and 
as  my  dear  father  had  a  great  esteem  for  the  author." 
The  best  and  most  authentic  account  of  Berkeley's 
death  is  contained  in  the  following  letter  to  Dr.  John 
son,  written  by  this  son,  and  dated  :  — 

CHRIST  CHURCH,  October  16,  1753. 

REV.  SIR,  —  With  inexpressible  sorrow  I  repeat  the  dis 
mal  account  (for  I  suppose  you  have  heard  it  before)  of  my 
dearest  and  ever  honored  father's  removal  to  the  enjoyment 
of  eternal  rewards,  which  happened  suddenly  and  without  the 
least  previous  notice  or  pain  on  Sunday  evening,  Jan.  14th, 
as  he  was  sitting  with  my  mother,  sister,  and  myself,  and 
although  all  possible  means  were  instantly  used,  no  symp 
tom  of  life  ever  appeared  after,  nor  could  the  physicians  as 
sign  any  cause  for  his  death,  as  they  were  certain  it  was  not 
an  apoplexy.  He  had  made  his  will  at  Cloyne  a  few  days 
before  he  left  it  (which  he  did  in  the  middle  of  August),  and 
has  very  wisely  left  us  all  entirely  under  the  care,  and  in  the 
power  of  the  best  of  mothers.  He  arrived  at  Oxford  on  the 
25th  of  August  and  had  received  great  benefit  from  the 
change  of  air,  and  by  God's  blessing  on  Tar  Water,  insomuch 
that  for  some  years  he  had  not  been  in  better  health  than  he 
was  the  instant  before  he  left  us.  He  had  been  indeed  much 
out  of  order  the  whole  summer  at  Cloyne,  which  prevented 
his  coming  over  with  me  in  May,  1752.  His  remains  are 
interred  in  the  Cathedral  of  Christ  Church,  and  next  week 
a  monument  to  his  memory  will  be  erected  with  an  inscrip 
tion  by  Dr.  Markham,  a  student  of  this  College.1  A  few 

1  Berkeley  provided   in  his  will  that  his  body  should  be  buried  in  the  Church 
yard  of  the  parish  where  he  died. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  175 

days  after  this  greatest  of  human  misfortunes  befell  us  I 
received  from  Cloyne  your  letter  to  my  dearest  father,  but 
his  agent  there  has  not  yet  got  an  opportunity  of  sending 
me  the  Book  mentioned  in  it,  but  the  Bishop  of  Oxford 
has  been  so  good  as  to  send  it  to  me,  and  you  must  give  me 
leave  to  say  that  (except  those  wrote  by  him  to  whom  this 
was  dedicated)  I  never  read  any  with  equal  pleasure,  and 
the  more  so  as  it  shows  that  a  person  so  very  capable  and 
willing  to  spread  his  Philosophy,  understands  it  so  thor 
oughly.  This  little  book  contains  and  teaches  the  wisdom 
of  ages  and  numberless  volumes,  and  I  entreat  you  would  ac 
cept  my  hearty  thanks  for  the  honor  you  have  done  my 
dearest  parent  by  choosing  him  for  its  patron,  and  also  for 
the  improvement  I  have  met  with  in  it. 

It  is  now  high  time  that  I  should  apologize  for  the  liberty 
I  have  taken,  and  which  nothing  should  have  encouraged  me 
to  but  the  great  friendship  that  subsisted  between  you  and 
him  whose  image  is  ever  fresh  before  me,  and  whose  mem 
ory  shall  ever  be  most  dear  to  me.  I  have  inherited  his  high 
esteem  for  you,  Sir,  and  this  will,  I  hope,  plead  my  excuse  for 
giving  you  this  trouble.  My  mother,  who  remembers  you 
with  the  truest  regard,  desires  me  to  assure  you  of  her  most 
sincere  services.  Your  countryman,  my  brother,1  has  been 
near  two  years  abroad  in  the  south  of  France  for  his  health, 
which  has  been  very  bad  ever  since  a  violent  fever  which 
he  had  some  years  ago.  He  is  now,  I  thank  God,  much  bet 
ter,  and  is  lately  returned  to  Dublin,  from  whence  we  expect 
him  here  next  summer.  Not  knowing  any  other  way  of 

In  the  summer  of  1870,  in  company  with  two  friends,  I  spent  a  day  at  Cloyne, 
and  walked  through  its  narrow  streets,  and  under  the  ancient  elms  that  overshad 
ow  the  dwellings  of  this  thriftless  village.  I  thought  of  Berkeley  at  every  turn 
and  was  disappointed  when  we  entered  the  Cathedral  to  find  no  memorial  of  the 
great  name  associated  with  it  for  nearly  a  score  of  years.  The  mysterious  Round 
Tower,  the  Cave,  the  See  House  and  the  Palace  garden,  were  there  as  they  were  a 
century  ago,  and  the  myrtle  and  the  ivy  grew  in  wonderful  luxuriance,  but  there  was 
nothing  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  good  Bishop,  or  to  show  that  there  had  ever 
been  a  people  here  who  knew  his  intellectual  greatness. 

i  Henry,  the  eldest  son,  born  at  Newport.  In  Eraser's  admirable  Life  of  Berke 
ley,  p.  336,  it  is  conjectured  that  he  "had  been  left  behind  in  Ireland,"  when  the 
removal  to  Oxford  took  place. 


176  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

conveyance,  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  inclosing  this  to  Dr. 
Bearcroft,  the  Secretary  of  your  Society  (of  which  I  have  the 
honor  to  be  a  member),  to  forward  it.  If  ever  you  can  think 
of  anything  in  which  I  can  render  you  the  least  service,  I  as 
sure  you  that  nothing  will  more  highly  oblige  me  than  receiv 
ing  any  commands  from  one  whom  I  so  honor  and  esteem,  and 
to  whom  I  am  a  most  dutiful  and  faithful  humble  servant. 

GEO.  BERKELEY. 

A  third  edition  of  Dr.  Johnson's  "  Elements  of  Phi 
losophy,"  corrected  and  enlarged,  was  published  in 
London  in  the  spring  of  1754,  under  the  editorship 
of  Rev.  William  Smith,  afterwards  Provost  of  the 
College  of  Philadelphia.  He  sent  by  him  letters  to 
several  of  his  friends,  and  among  the  rest  to  Mr.  Ber- 
riman,  who  answered,  — 

February  7,  1754. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  had  the  pleasure  of  yours  by  Mr.  Smith, 
but  have  as  yet  had  but  little  of  that  gentleman's  company  ; 
I  once  called  at  his  lodgings,  and  found  him  at  home  ;  but 
having  no  time  to  stay  then,  he  promised  to  favor  me  with 
a  visit,  which  promise  he  has  not  yet  fulfilled :  however,  I 
hope  he  will  do  it  hereafter,  as  I  understood  by  him  he  in 
tended  to  continue  some  time  in  England  before  he  returned 
to  your  parts. 

Dr.  Bearcroft  is  made  Master  of  the  Charter  House,  but 
still  holds  his  place  of  Secretary  to  the  Society.  There  has 
been  some  talk  of  Capt.  Thomlinson  for  Treasurer.  Per 
haps  I  may  let  you  know  more  about  it  before  I  seal  up  this 
letter. 

Mr.  Pollen  is  appointed  Missionary  to  Rhode  Island.  He 
is  a  worthy  clergyman  and  esteemed  a  good  scholar ;  he  was 
contemporary  at  C.  C.  C.  Oxon.  with  your  friend  Dr.  Burton, 
who  is  now  Vice  Provost  of  Eton  College.  I  would  beg 
leave  to  recommend  him  to  your  favorable  notice,  and  that 
you  would  advise  and  assist  him  in  any  case  that  may  need 
your  helping  hand.  He  is  a  traveller,  and  has  seen  the 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  177 

world  ;  and  has  been  lately  employed  in  an  Episcopal  chapel 
at  Glasgow,  but  never  was  in  your  parts,  and  being  quite  a 
stranger  to  such  a  kind  of  settlement,  may  often  have  occa 
sion  to  consult  you,  who  are  so  much  known,  and  so  well  es 
teemed  by  all  around  you.  We  have  had  such  bad  accounts 
of  poor  Mr.  Checkley  that  we  fear  the  next  news  will  bring 
an  account  of  his  death. 

I  thank  God  I  am  rather  the  better  for  the  change  of  my 
situation,  and  at  this  time  in  tolerable  good  health ;  but  I  must 
never  expect  to  get  free  from  my  old  companions,  the  cough 
and  shortness  of  breath,  bat  God  be  praised,  they  are  not  by 
many  degrees  so  bad  with  me  as  with  many  others  :  and  I 
ought  to  be  very  thankful  for  the  long  intervals  I  have,  and 
the  health  and  strength  afforded  me  to  attend  my  duty  in  the 
Church.  I  quitted  my  Lecture  at  Aldermary  at  Lady- Day 
last  and  have  done  scarce  any  duty  in  the  Church  but  supply 
ing  my  own  pulpit  or  desk  on  Sunday  mornings,  since  mid 
summer.  I  find  my  strength  somewhat  decayed,  and  my 
eyes  begin  to  wax  dim  (though  I  can  make  no  use  of  spec 
tacles),  and  I  have  this  day  completed  my  grand  climacteric. 

Feb.  15.  —  The  choice  of  a  Treasurer  came  on  at  the 
anniversary  meeting  of  the  Society  in  the  Vestry  at  Bow 
Church.  Mr.  Pearson  (recommended  by  the  Bishops)  was 
elected,  and  nobody  named  in  opposition  to  him. 

I  am  affectionately  yours, 

J.  BEBKIMAN, 

To  the  London  edition  of  the  "  Elements  of  Philos 
ophy  "  was  annexed  "  A  Letter  containing  some  Im 
partial  Thoughts  concerning  the  Settlement  of  Bish 
ops  in  America,  by  Dr.  Johnson  and  some  of  his 
Brethren."  In  this  connection  the  following  letter  is 
important,  written  by  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  from  the — 

DEANERY  OF  ST.  PAUL'S,  March  19,  1754. 
GOOD  DR.  JOHNSON,  —  I  should  have  returned  you  my 
hearty  thanks  before  now,  if  extraordinary  business  had  not 


178  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

put  it  partly  out  of  my  power,  and  partly  out  of  my  thoughts, 
for  your  favors  by  Mr.  Smith.  He  is  indeed  a  very  ingen 
ious  and  able,  and  seems  a  very  well  disposed  young  man. 
And  if  he  had  pursued  his  intention  of  residing  a  while  at 
Oxford,  I  should  have  hoped  for  more  of  his  company  and 
acquaintance.  Nor  would  he,  I  think,  have  failed  to  see 
more  fully,  what  I  flatter  myself  he  is  convinced  of  without 
it,  that  our  Universities  do  not  deserve  the  sentence  which 
is  passed  on  them  by  the  author  whom  he  cites,  and  whose 
words  he  adopts  in  page  84  of  his  "  General  Idea  of  the 
College  of  Mirania."  1  He  assures  me  they  are  effaced  in 
almost  all  the  copies.  I  wish  they  had  not  been  printed,  or 
that  the  leaf  had  been  cancelled.  But  the  many  valuable 
things  which  there  are  in  that  performance  and  in  the  pa 
pers  which  he  published  at  New  York,  will  atone  for  this 
blemish  with  all  candid  persons.  And  there  seems  a  fair 
prospect  of  his  doing  great  service  in  the  place  where  he  is 
going  to  settle. 

I  am  particularly  obliged  to  you  for  sending  me  your  Book ; 
of  which  I  made  a  very  acceptable  present  to  the  late  excel 
lent  Bishop  of  Cloyne's  son,  —  a  most  serious,  and  sensible, 
and  prudent  young  man,  whom  his  father  placed  at  Christ 
Church,  and  who,  with  his  mother  and  sister,  spent  the  last 
Bummer  with  me  in  Oxfordshire.  I  have  now  lately  received 
from  Mr.  Smith  another  copy  of  it,  printed  here,  and  have 
read  several  parts  of  it,  and  all  with  much  pleasure.  You 
have  taken  very  proper  care  to  keep  those  who  do  not  enter 
into  all  the  philosophy  of  the  good  and  great  man  from  being 
shocked  at  it,  and  you  have  explained  and  recommended  just 
reasoning,  virtue,  and  religion,  so  as  to  make  them  not  only 
well  understood,  but  ardently  loved. 

Would  God  there  were  any  present  hopes  of  executing 
what  the  concluding  piece  unanswerably  proves  to  be  harm- 

1  This  was  an  imaginary  scheme  drawn  up  and  published  at  the  desire  of  some 
gentlemen  of  New  York,  who  were  appointed  to  receive  proposals  relative  to  the 
establishment  of  a  college  in  that  province,  and  it  contained  a  pretty  exact  repre 
sentation  of  what  the  author  endeavored  to  realize  in  the  Institution  over  which  he 
afterwards  presided  at  Philadelphia. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  179 

less,  useful,  and  requisite.  But  we  have  done  all  we  can  here 
in  vain ;  and  must  wait  for  more  favorable  times  ;  which 
I  think  it  will  contribute  not  a  little  to  bring  on,  if  the 
ministry  of  our  Church  in  America,  by  friendly  converse  with 
the  principal  Dissenters,  can  satisfy  them  that  nothing  more 
is  intended  or  desired  than  that  our  Church  may  enjoy  the 
full  benefit  of  its  own  institutions,  as  all  others  do.  For  so 
long  as  they  are  uneasy  and  remonstrate,  regard  will  be  paid 
to  them  and  their  friends  here  by  our  ministers  of  state. 
And  yet  it  will  be  a  hard  matter  for  you  to  prevent  their 
being  uneasy,  while  they  find  you  gaining  ground  upon 
them.  That  so  much  of  the  money  of  the  Society  was  em 
ployed  in  supporting  Episcopal  congregations  amongst  them, 
was  industriously  made  an  argument  against  the  late  col 
lection.  And  though,  God  be  thanked,  the  collection  hath 
notwithstanding  proved  a  very  good  one,  yet  unless  we  be 
cautious  on  that  head,  we  shall  have  farther  clamor ;  and 
one  knows  not  what  the  effect  of  it  may  be.  Our  friends 
in  America  will  furnish  us,  I  hope,  from  time  to  time,  with 
all  such  facts,  books,  observations,  and  reasonings,  as  may 
enable  us  the  better  to  defend  our  common  cause. 
I  am  with  great  regard  and  esteem,  Sir, 

Your  loving  brother  and  humble  servant, 

THO.  OXFOKD. 

Johnson  felt  some  disappointment  that  his  work 
was  not  more  generally  appreciated,  and  appeared 
to  regret  that  he  had  ventured  on  its  publication. 
The  cost  of  printing  it  was  likely  to  exceed  the 
amount  of  sales,  —  as  it  was  not  so  well  calculated  for 
popular  reading  as  for  use  in  educational  institu 
tions.  Franklin  relieved  him  from  any  anxiety  on 
this  subject,  and  wrote  him  a  kind  and  encouraging 
letter,  offering  to  assume  the  loss,  should  there  be 
any  :  — 


180  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

PHILADELPHIA,  April  15,  1754. 

DEAK  SIR,  —  When  I  returned  from  Maryland  in  Febru 
ary  last,  I  found  your  favor  of  Jan'y  1,  but  having  mislaid 
it  soon  after,  I  deferred  answering  till  I  should  find  it  again, 
which  I  have  now  done.  I  think  you  ought  not  to  be,  a,s 
you  say  you  are,  vexed  at  yourself  that  you  offered  your 
"  Noetica "  to  be  printed  ;  for  though  the  demand  for  it 
in  this  part  of  the  world  has  not  yet  been  equal  to  the 
merit  of  the  work,  yet  you  will  see  by  the  inclosed  news 
paper  they  are  reprinting  it  in  England,  where  good  judges 
being  more  plenty  than  with  us,  it  will,  I  doubt  not,  acquire 
a  reputation  that  may  not  only  make  it  extensively  useful 
there,  but  bring  it  more  into  notice  in  its  native  America. 

As  to  the  use  of  it  in  our  Academy,  you  are  to  consider 
that  though  our  plan  is  large,  we  have  as  yet  been  able  to 
carry  little  more  into  execution  than  the  grammatical  and 
mathematical  parts  :  the  rest  must  follow  gradually,  as  the 
youth  come  forward  and  we  can  provide  suitable  masters. 
Some  of  the  eldest  scholars,  who  have  now  left  us,  did  read 
it ;  but  those  at  present  in  the  Academy  are  chiefly  engaged 
in  lower  studies.  For  my  own  part,  I  know  too  well  the 
badness  of  our  general  taste,  to  expect  any  great  profit  in 
printing  it ;  though  I  did  think  it  might  sell  better  than  I 
find  it  does,  having  struck  off  five  hundred,  and  not  disposed 
of  more  than  fifty  in  these  parts.  There  were  parcels  sent  to 
New  York,  Rhode  Island,  and  Boston,  and  advertised  there, 
though  it  seems  you  have  not  heard  of  it.  How  they  sold  I 
have  not  learnt,  and  did  not  remember  to  inquire  when  I 
was  there  last  year.  I  am  far  from  thinking  it  right  that 
the  loss  should  fall  on  you,  who  took  so  much  pains  in  the 
composition.  You  gave  me  no  other  expectation  than  what 
I  might  gather  from  your  saying  in  your  letter  of  May  10, 
1750,  you  believed  you  could  dispose  of  one  hundred  copies 
in  Connecticut,  and  perhaps  another  hundred  might  be  dis 
posed  of  at  Boston.  All  I  would  request  of  you  is,  that  if 
you  think  fit,  you  would  take  the  trouble  of  writing  to  such 
of  the  Ministers  of  your  Church  in  New  England  and  New 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  181 

York  as  you  are  acquainted  with,  and  desire  them  to  recom 
mend  the  book  to  their  friends ;  and  if,  with  those  you  have 
had,  all  that  shall  be  disposed  of  in  those  Colonies  amount  to 
two  hundred,  I  will  cheerfully  take  my  chance  with  the  re 
mainder.  And  if  you  cannot  procure  the  sale  of  so  many, 
make  yourself  easy  nevertheless ;  I  shall  be  perfectly  satis 
fied  with  your  endeavor.  With  my  best  respects  to  good 
Mrs.  Johnson  and  your  valuable  sons, 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  very  affectionately, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

B.  FRANKLIN. 

Among  the  friends  and  correspondents  of  Dr.  John 
son,  Lieutenant-governor  Golden  was  not  forgotten  in 
the  distribution  of  the  spare  copies  of  his  "  Noetica." 
It  has  been  seen  how  these  two  men  discussed  philo 
sophical  subjects  and  exchanged  publications,  and  the 
following  letters,  after  glancing  at  the  points  of  their 
disagreement,  advert  to  matters  of  domestic  interest, 
and  show  the  concurrence  of  their  ideas  upon  the 
subject  of  education :  — 

December  20,  1752. 

SIR,  —  I  sometime  since  received  your  book  which  Mr. 
Nicholls  told  me  you  was  pleased  to  send  me.  Since  that 
time  my  thoughts  happened  by  several  incidents  to  be  so 
much  engaged  that  I  could  not  write  to  you  in  the  manner 
I  inclined  to  do,  and  they  continued  so  when  I  sent  you 
the  "  Principles  of  Action  in  Matter,"  about  ten  days  or  a 
fortnight  since.  I  had  at  that  time  just  received  three  copies 
of  it  from  England,  and  had  only  time  to  run  it  curso 
rily  over  to  correct  the  most  obvious  errors  in  the  press, 
which  happen  to  be  numerous.  I  know  we  (you  and  I) 
differ  in  the  fundamentals  of  that  Essay,  and  for  that  rea 
son  I  expect  from  you  the  strongest  arguments  that  can 
be  brought  against  it,  and  therefore,  if  I  am  under  an  error, 
you  are  the  most  capable  to  set  me  right,  and  I  assure  you 


182  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

that  I  have  that  esteem  of  your  judgment  that  I  unwill 
ingly  differ  from  you.  Pray  then,  Sir,  let  me  have  your 
objections  to  those  principles  with  that  freedom  that  ought 
always  to  subsist  in  philosophical  inquiries. 

In  the  sixth  page  of  your  u  Noetica,"  you  say  our  per 
ceptions  cannot  be  produced  in  our  minds  without  a  cause 
(so  far  we  agree)  ;  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  by  any  im 
agined,  unintelligent,  inert,  or  unactive  cause.  I  likewise  agree 
that  an  unactive  cause  and  no  cause  are  synonymous ;  but  I 
am  not  convinced  that  intelligence  is  an  essential  concomitant 
to  all  action,  for  then  I  could  not  conceive  the  action  of  a 
mill  without  supposing  it  endowed  with  intelligence.  You 
seem  likewise  to  think  that  the  words  inert  and  unactive 
are  synonymous.  Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  certainly  of  a  dif 
ferent  opinion,  as  appears  by  the  third  definition  in  the  be 
ginning  of  his  "  Principia,"  viz.  :  Materia3  vis  inerta  est  Po- 
tentia  resistendi,  etc.  We  certainly  can  have  no  conception 
of  Force  or  Power  devoid  of  all  kind  of  action.  Now,  Sir, 
these  are  fundamental  differences.  One  of  us  must  be 
under  a  very  great  mistake,  and  if  you  incline  to  write  with 
the  same  freedom  that  I  incline  to  think  on  these  subjects, 
I  hope  we  shall  not  continue  long  of  a  different  opinion. 
Inert  in  common  discourse  is  often  synonymous  with  unactive, 
but  I  take  it  in  the  sense  that  philosophers  of  late  use  the 
word  Inertia  when  they  say  vis  inertice,  which  certainly  can 
not  mean  mere  inaction.  I  shall  say  nothing  more  on  these 
matters  of  speculation,  that  I  may  pass  to  a  subject  of  more 
immediate  concern. 

It  gave  me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  when  Mr.  De  Lancey 
resolved  to  send  his  children  to  you  for  their  education  in 
learning,  as  I  am  confident  they  will  thereby  imbibe  prin 
ciples  which  will  be  of  the  greatest  use  to  themselves  and 
to  their  neighbors  in  whatever  course  of  life  they  shall 
afterwards  take  to.  I  am  under  little  concern  as  to  their 
learning  languages,  or  as  to  their  skill  in  what  may  be  called 
the  learned  sciences,  but  I  am  earnestly  desirous  that  they 
have  the  true  principles  of  good  manners  early  implanted  in 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  183 

their  minds ;  to  have  their  affections  always  moved  by  uni 
versal  benevolence,  and  to  have  a  true  sense  of  honor  where 
in  it  really  consists.  It  is  from  you  that  I  hope  they  will 
receive  these  great  advantages,  of  which  they  will  find  the 
benefits  in  every  station  of  life  and  in  all  emergencies  or 
turns  of  fortune.  These  I  beg  you  will  again  and  again  ex 
plain  to  them  and  never  cease  to  inculcate  upon  their  minds. 
As  it  is  not  determined  what  course  of  life  any  of  them  shall 
pursue,  it  may  be  best  to  instruct  them  in  such  parts  of  learn 
ing  as  will  be  of  use  in  every  station.  I  think  knowledge  in 
geography  as  useful  as  any  other  part  for  these  purposes, 
especially  the  modern  geography  with  an  account  of  the 
present  state  of  the  kingdoms  and  republics  in  Europe  and 
of  the  great  monarchies  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  Peter, 
in  a  letter  he  wrote  to  me  from  West  Chester,  tells  me  that 
he  inclines  to  study  Divinity  and  to  fit  himself  for  that  study 
with  you.  I  shall  be  far  from  diverting  these  thoughts,  be 
cause  he  may  be  as  useful  in  that  way  as  in  any,  and  the 
more  so  that  few  of  any  distinguished  families  in  America 
apply  themselves  to  the  Church.  His  applying  to  it  may 
(if  others  follow  his  example)  prevent  a  contempt  of  the 
character  which  otherwise  may  in  time  be  produced.  For 
this  reason  I  do  not  doubt  but  the  bishops  in  England  will 
think  it  for  the  interest  of  the  Church  to  encourage  any 
young  gentlemen  in  America  who  shall  turn  their  thoughts 
that  way  from  worthy  principles. 

I  had  thoughts  of  writing  to  my  grandchildren,1  but  1 
have  said  all  to  you  that  I  had  in  my  thoughts  to  write  to 
them,  and  therefore  if  you  think  proper  you  may  communicate 
it  to  them  and  remember  me  affectionately  to  them  and  tell 
them  that  we  are  all  in  health.  I  hope  to  hear  often  from 
you.  Mr.  Nicholls  will  take  care  of  your  letters. 
I  am  affectionately,  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 

CADWALLADER  COLDEN. 

l  Elizabeth  Colden,  daughter  of  the  Lieutenant-governor,  married  Peter  De  Lancey, 
and  was  the  mother  of  eleven  children,  six  son8  and  five  daughters.    Peter,  one  of 


184  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

January  29,  1758. 

The  river  being  full  of  ice  has  deprived  me  of  any  oppor 
tunity  of  sending  this  letter  till  now.  We  continue  in  health. 
Remember  us  again  to  the  children.  Their  grand-mamma, 
uncles  and  aunts  all  join  with  me. 

Yours,  C.  C. 

Answer :  — 

February  19. 

SIR,  —  I  sent  you  that  Book  without  any  imagination  of 
its  being  worthy  your  perusal.  I  only  meant  it  as  a  testi 
mony  of  my  humble  respect  and  gratitude,  though  not  with 
out  my  wishes  that  so  far  as  you  should  condescend  [to]  cast 
your  eye  upon  it,  if  you  see  anything  that  might  much  tend 
to  mislead  youth  in  the  entrance  of  their  studies,  for  whose 
use  it  was  written,  you  would  be  so  good  as  to  intimate  it 
to  me.  I  now  return  you  my  humble  thanks  for  your  very 
ingenious  performance  and  this  kind  letter  upon  it.  I  have 
perused  it  with  some  care,  though  I  have  not  yet  had  it 
long  enough  to  spend  so  much  thought  upon  it  as  I  intend. 
I  am  glad  to  see  the  whole  of  it  published,  and  doubt  not 
but  it  will  be  an  acceptable  present  to  the  public,  and  must 
own  that  now  I  see  the  whole  of  it  together,  it  appears  to 
me  in  a  much  more  advantageous  light  than  that  piece  of 
it  did  before,  and  do  not  think  we  differ  so  much  in  the 
principles  you  set  out  with  as  you  seem  to  imagine.  I  do  not 
differ  with  you  at  all,  considered  as  a  natural  philosopher, 
which  is  the  light  in  which  you  are  principally  to  be  considered 
in  that  Treatise.  For  it  is  evident  there  are  those  three  dis 
tinct  principles  of  action  in  nature  you  go  upon,  —  media  or 
endings  of  action  I  should  call  them  as  a  metaphysician,  re 
ferring  the  same  origin  of  them  to  the  one  great  principle  of 
natural  discovery  and  action ;  but  which  you  as  a  natural 
philosopher,  —  as  such  going  no  higher,  —  do  very  well  to 

the  sons,  did  not  fulfill  the  promise  of  his  boyhood  in  regard  to  the  Church,  — hav 
ing  been  killed  in  a  duel  at  a  comparatively  early  age ;  but  a  grand-nephew  of  his 
father,  Wm.  Heathcote  De  Lancey,  was  consecrated  the  first  Bishop  of  Western  New 
York,  May  9,  1839,  and  died  April  5, 1865.  —  MS.  Letter  D.  Golden  Murray,  Dec. 
10,  1872. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  185 

consider  as  distinct  principles.  The  principle  of  resistance  of 
motion  and  of  elasticity  —  and  the  contemporative  (if  I  may 
so  speak)  of  those  principles  in  their  various  exertions  and 
operations  you  seem  to  have  happily  demonstrated  —  will 
well  account  for  the  phenomena,  and  as  to  what  is  metaphys 
ical  in  your  Treatise,  I  think  you  have  explained  yourself  to 
my  satisfaction  in  your  chapter  of  the  Intelligent  Being,  §  10 
—  where  you  allow  the  Intelligent  Being  to  be  the  real  author 
of  all  material  (I  should  call  them  sensible)  beings,  and  to 
govern  or  direct  their  actions  in  such  a  manner  as  is  most 
conducive  to  the  advantage  of  the  whole,  which  you  rightly 
deduce  from  the  power  of  our  minds  over  the  ether  in  the 
nerves  which  we  observe  to  quiesce  till  put  in  action  by 
our  hands.  The  reasons  indeed  we  know  not,  but  it  is  the 
fact. 

So  that  I  believe  what  we  seem  to  differ  in,  if  at  all,  will 
amount  to  little  more  than  words.  I  agree  with  you  in 
saying  "  we  can  certainly  have  no  conception  of  Force 
or  Power  devoid  of  all  kind  of  action,"  and  when  I  do  so, 
it  seems  to  me  that  you  must  with  me  allow  that  Sir  Isaac's 
vis  inertice  is  a  contradiction  in  terms,  and  that  that  great 
man,  in  that  definition  and  the  explication  of  it,  has  some 
expressions  that  have  no  meaning ;  for  I  must  think  it  is 
plain  that  by  Inertia  (as  in  Ovid,  pondus  iners)  the  old 
Romans  meant  an  utter  destitution  of  any  principle  of  ac 
tivity  in  se,  or  power  of  self-exertion  or  action,  terminating 
on  anything  without,  and  I  don't  see  what  right  he  had  to 
use  or  define  it  in  a  quite  contrary  sense  ;  at  best  his  expres 
sions  are  figurative. 

As  to  that  question  whether  the  same  Being  that  is  the 
principle  of  action  must  as  such  be  also  a  principle  of  In 
telligence,  I  have  nothing  to  say  for  it  more  than  I  said  in 
a  former  letter,  that  it  seems  to  follow  from  that  principle 
"Non  est  philosophia  extera  multiplicare  sine  necessitate,'' 
and  that  a  blind  principle  or  power  of  action  without  Intelli 
gence  seems  repugnant  and  useless.  However  it  seems  a 
question  of  little  real  consequence,  or  indeed  of  scarce  any 


186  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

meaning  after  what  you  allow  in  the  chapter  of  the  Intel 
ligent  Being ;  the  action  of  what  you  call  matter  being  ac 
cording  to  you  derived  originally  from  and  directed  by  the 
Intelligent  Being.  And  so  matter  is  no  more  than  merely 
His  instrument,  so  that  what  you  call  the  action  of  a  mill  or 
watch  is  really  only  a  successive  series  of  passions  till  you 
come  to  the  principle  of  Intelligence,  which  will  ultimately 
prove  to  be  also  the  principle  of  the  action. 

That  expression  of  yours,  page  164,  "  That  perfect  Intel 
ligence  will  not  act  in  contradiction  to  the  action  of  matter," 
I  should  have  chosen  to  express  thus :  Will  not  in  the  set 
tled  course  of  things  act  in  contradiction  to  the  Laws  He 
hath  established  according  to  which  He  wills  matter  to  act. 
For  I  cannot  conceive  you  to  imagine  the  action  of  matter 
to  be  independent  of  the  Divine  will.  I  rather  imagine 
from  other  passages  that  you  do  with  me  conceive  it  to  be 
entirely  dependent,  as  well  as  matter  itself,  on  the  constant 
free  exertion  of  the  Divine  will  and  power. 

I  don't  deny,  Sir,  but  that  I  am  yet  a  little  in  the  dark 
about  the  operations  of  that  elastic  fluid  by  which  you  ac 
count  for  gravitation.  I  should  scarce  ever  say  that  there 
should  be  a  perpetual  return  of  the  ethereal  fluid  to  the 
sun  as  well  as  a  perpetual  flow  from  it,  agreeable  to  Mr. 
Hutchinson's  notion,  who  imagines  a  perpetual  circulation 
of  it  from  the  sun,  and  after  a  kind  of  condensation  of  it 
at  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  system,  a  reverberation  and  re 
turn  of  it  to  the  sun  again  ;  so  that  according  to  that  great 
man  the  effects  of  gravitation,  circular  motion,  and  rotation, 
will  be  the  result  of  the  struggle  between  those  contrary 
tendencies.  This  being  supposed,  you  and  he  seem  well  to 
coincide.  I  wish  you  had  opportunity,  if  you  have  not  had, 
to  read  his  system  with  some  attention  and  exactness,  if 
not  in  his  works,  which  are  something  tedious,  at  least  in  that 
beautiful  short  sketch  of  them  set  forth  by  your  excellently 
great  and  good  countryman,  Lord  President  Forbes,  in  his 
"  Letter  to  a  Bishop  and  Thoughts  on  Religion."  But  what 
you  call  the  different  principles  of  Light  and  Ether,  he  sup- 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  187 

poses  to  be  the  one  ethereal  fluid  or  fire  of  the  sun  in  the  dif 
ferent  conditions  of  Light  and  Spirit  as  it  flies  from  or  re 
turns  to  its  fountain.  Perhaps  your  notion  and  his  may 
come  nearly  to  the  same  thing.  The  Abbe  Pluche  of  France, 
as  well  as  he  and  Bp.  Berkeley,  agree  that  this  ethereal  fire 
is  the  light  and  life  of  the  whole  sensible  world,  and  grand 
agent  in  all  nature,  or  the  immediate  engine  from  whence 
all  the  phenomena  mechanically  derive :  and  that  this  was 
the  original  philosophy  of  Moses  and  in  all  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  and  taught  mankind  from  the  beginning.  And 
I  am  pleased  in  thinking  that  your  demonstrations  and 
Mr.  Franklin's  experiments  illustrate  and  confirm  it  to  be 
the  only  true  and  genuine  philosophy.  Pardon,  Sir,  my 
incoherent  and  rambling  way  of  writing.  I  hope  you  may 
pick  out  my  meaning.  I  would  transcribe,  but  my  care  of 
your  grandchildren  and  other  duties  will  not  admit  of  time 
for  it. 

As  to  your  grandchildren,  I  have  the  same  notion  of 
education  with  you  (my  plan  you  may  see  in  my  6th  chap 
ter),  and  do  not  fail,  as  you  desire,  to  inculcate  those  prin 
ciples  you  mention  as  far  as  I  am  able.  And  besides  the 
moral  and  classical  part  (in  which  they  have  almost  finished 
"  Cornelius  Nepos  "  and  two  thirds  of  "  Justin  "),  I  have  gone 
over  and  explained  a  short  History  of  England  and  a  short 
Geography  you  gave  them,  and  am  now  going  over  a  short 
system  of  Universal  History  and  Chronology,  and  point 
out  to  them  in  maps  the  Ancient  Geography  of  the  Classics 
as  well  as  the  modern.  But  they  have  (the  eldest  espe 
cially)  such  a  violent  impetuosity  to  their  play  that  I  find 
it  exceeding  difficult  to  gain  so  strong  an  attention  as  I 
could  wish  to  their  books  and  studies.  They  seem  well 
cut  out  for  business,  as  farming  and  merchandise,  but  Peter 
has  an  excellent  turn  for  learning,  and  it  is  a  pity  but  he 
should  go  through  an  entire  course  of  education.  As  to 
what  he  wrote  to  you,  I  am  exceeding  glad  his  dispositions 
are  such  and  that  you  approve  of  them,  and  agree  with  you 
and  thank  you  for  your  remark  of  the  vast  importance 


188  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

to  religion  and  the  public  weal,  that  any  of  distinguished 
families  should  apply  themselves  to  Divinity.  Mrs.  De 
Lancey  first  mentioned  it  to  me,  and  I  ventured  to  encour 
age  it,  and  shall  henceforward  encourage  myself  to  hope 
that  your  daughter  has  borne,  and  that  I  am  educating  one 
who,  in  God's  time,  may  become  a  bishop  in  America.  I 
communicated  your  letter  to  them  and  inculcated  it.  They 
send  their  humblest  thanks  and  duty  to  you  and  their  grand 
mamma  and  uncles  and  aunts.  They  have  had  an  uninter 
rupted  course  of  perfect  health. 

I  cannot  take  leave  without  giving  you  my  humble  thanks 
for  the  favor  you  have  done  me  in  the  good  character  you 
gave  of  me  in  your  account  of  Pokeweed,  etc.,  which  was 
published  in  the  "  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  and  wish  I  may 
deserve  it.  I  have  since  heard  of  several  others  of  the  eat 
ing  cancers  cured  by  it,  but  a  man  in  this  town  has  a  strange 
sore  on  his  legs  they  call  a  heaving  or  gnawing  cancer,  on 
which  it  was  tried  without  success  ;  and  both  cutting,  burn 
ing,  and  several  caustics  have  since  been  tried,  which  have 
only  made  it  grow  the  faster,  and  it  is  now  larger  than  the 
hand  can  cover,  and  is  like  to  cost  the  poor  man  his  life. 
I  am,  Sir,  your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 

S.  J. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  189 


CHAPTER  VIE. 

PROPOSED  COLLEGE  AT  NEW  YORK  ;  JOHNSON  INVITED  TO  THE 
PRESIDENCY  ;  OBSTACLES  TO  A  CHARTER,  AND  FINALLY 
GRANTED  ;  LETTERS  TO  PRESIDENT  CLAP  ;  REMOVAL  TO  NEW 
YORK  AND  LECTURER  IN  TRINITY  CHURCH  ;  HIS  YOUNGER 
SON  CHOSEN  TUTOR  IN  KING'S  COLLEGE  ;  GOES  TO  ENGLAND 
FOR  ORDINATION  AND  DIES  THERE  OF  THE  SMALL-POX. 

A.  D.  1754-1756. 

THE  proposition  to  establish  a  College  in  New  York 
was  pursued  with  more  vigor  after  the  settlement  of 
the  Institution  at  Philadelphia.  A  few  gentlemen, 
chiefly  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  were  lead 
ing  spirits  in  the  movement,  and  guided  it  so  as  to  se 
cure  the  erection  of  the  College  on  the  broad  grounds 
of  Christian  liberality.  It  appears  to  have  been  the 
intention  in  the  original  endowment  of  Trinity  Church, 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  to  connect  the  promotion  of 
learning  with  the  interests  of  religion,  and  a  lot  of 
land  in  a  favorable  locality  belonging  to  the  Vestry 
was  given  for  the  use  of  the  proposed  College,  upon 
condition,  that  the  President  thereof  for  the  time  be 
ing  should  be  in  communion  with  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  and  that  the  morning  and  evening  service  in  the 
College  should  be  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church,  or  such 
a  collection  of  prayers  out  of  the  Liturgy  as  should  be 
"  agreed  upon  by  the  President  or  Trustees  or  Gov 
ernors  of  the  said  College."  This  gift  was  accepted 
by  the  Commissioners  empowered  to  receive  propo 
sals  for  the  Trustees. 


190  UFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

The  Trustees,  who  had  been  appointed  by  an  act 
of  the  Colonial  Legislature,  consisted  of  "  the  eldest 
Councilor  of  the  Province,  the  Speaker  of  the  As 
sembly,  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  Mayor 
of  the  city  of  New  York,"  ex  officio  (Churchmen), 
and  one  more  Churchman,  together  with  the  Treas 
urer  of  the  Colony,  and  a  "  member  of  the  Dutch 
Church,  and  one  of  the  Presbyterian  congregation."  l 
The  same  act  which  fixed  the  appointment  of  Trus 
tees,  vested  in  them  the  sum  of  "  three  thousand  four 
hundred  and  forty-three  pounds,  eighteen  shillings, 
raised  by  way  of  Lottery  for  erecting  a  College  within 
the  Colony  ;"  and  by  a  supplementary  act  passed  on 
the  4th  of  July,  1753,  the  Treasurer  of  the  Colony 
for  the  time  being  was  enabled  and  directed  to  pay 
unto  the  Trustees  out  of  "  the  moneys  arising  from 
the  duty  of  excise,  the  annual  sum  of  five  hundred 
pounds,  for  and  during  the  term  of  seven  years,  to 
commence  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  January 
next  ensuing ; "  this  annuity  to  be  distributed  by 
them  in  salaries  to  the  officers  of  instruction. 

In  pursuance  of  other  powers  granted  by  this  act, 
the  Trustees  invited  Dr.  Johnson,  who  from  its  incep 
tion  had  been  consulted  about  perfecting  the  scheme 
and  carrying  it  into  execution,  to  become  the  Pres 
ident,  and  to  remove  to  New  York  and  enter  upon 
his  duties  without  delay.  The  position  was  congen 
ial  to  his  tastes,  for  he  loved  learning  and  colleges ; 
but  there  were  two  great  obstacles  in  the  way  of  his 
acceptance.  One  was  he  had  not  had  the  small-pox, 
and  in  New  York  he  would  be  much  more  exposed 

1  See  a  Brief  Vindication  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Trustees,  etc.,  by  an  Impar 
tial  Hand,  p.  4. 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  191 

to  it  than  in  Stratford  ;  and  the  other,  which  was 
perhaps  the  greater,  was  the  consideration  of  his  ad 
vanced  years.  He  was  almost  three-score,  and  on  this 
account  was  less  inclined  to  sunder  the  happy  pas 
toral  relations  which  had  subsisted  between  him  and 
his  people  for  the  best  part  of  his  life.  And  then 
the  social  refinement,  the  bustle  and  stir,  and  de 
mands  upon  his  time  in  a  city  did  not  contrast  pleas 
antly  in  his  mind  with  the  studious  retirement  and 
quiet  repose  of  a  rural  parsonage.  But  his  friends  in 
New  York  and  the  principal  managers  of  the  enter 
prise  assured  him  they  would  abandon  it,  and  it  would 
come  to  nothing  if  he  declined  the  invitation.  He 
finally  consented  to  make  a  trial,  but  would  not  ab 
solutely  accept  the  office  till  the  charter  should  be 
obtained,  and  he  could  see  what  sort  of  an  institution 
he  was  to  preside  over.  With  this  view  he  left  Strat 
ford  on  the  15th  of  April,  1754,  but  neither  removed 
his  family  nor  resigned  his  parish.  The  Vestry  of 
Trinity  Church  unanimously  chose  him  an  Assistant 
Minister  and  voted  him  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  per  annum ;  but  he  replied,  "  My  ad 
vanced  years,  verging  towards  the  decline  of  life,  are 
great  matters  of  discouragement  to  me,  and  render 
me  extremely  fearful  whether  I  shall  be  able  to  an 
swer  your  expectations."  l 

The  design  of  the  College  underwent  a  violent 
struggle  before  Dr.  Johnson  arrived  in  New  York. 
It  was  intended  to  be  a  common  blessing  to  all  de 
nominations,  with  no  other  preference  for  the  Church 
than  that  one  of  her  communicants  should  be  at  the 
head ;  "  but  Mr.  W.  Livingston,  a  virulent  Presby- 

1  Berriati's  Hist.  Trinity  Church,  p.  106. 


192  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

terian,  joined  with  other  leading  Presbyterians  and 
Free-thinkers,  violently  opposed  it,  and  raised  a  hide 
ous  clamor  against  it,  and  printed  a  paper  of  Twenty 
Reasons  to  disaffect  the  Assembly  against  granting 
the  money  raised  by  lotteries." 1  This  paper  was 
styled  a  Protest,  and  much  was  written  and  published 
in  reply.  Johnson  himself  dipped  into  the  contro 
versy,  and  even  asked  his  elder  son,  who  was  then 
rising  into  eminence  in  the  legal  profession,  to  try 
his  hand  in  an  argument  to  demolish  the  Twenty 
Reasons  and  vindicate  the  proceedings  of  the  Trus 
tees.  The  opinion  which  he  returned  to  his  father 
should  not  be  omitted  from  these  pages :  — 

I  must  add  a  word  to  what  you  say  of  an  answer  to  the 
Protest.  You  know  I  am  generally  averse  to  disputes  of 
this  kind,  as  tending  more  to  irritate  the  passions  than  to 
convince  the  understandings  of  the  people.  What  is  wrote 
in  this  way,  is  most  generally  read  only  by  those  persons 
who  are  before  prepossessed  on  one  side  or  other  of  the  ques 
tion.  But  especially  averse  am  I  towards  engaging  myself 
in  any  controversial  writings,  as  knowing  myself  to  want 
both  ability  and  leisure  to  perform  anything  as  it  should  be. 
I  never  yet  wrote  anything  but  I  was  both  sick  and  ashamed 
of  it  before  it  was  half  done.  In  regard  to  the  present  case, 
Mr.  Wetmore  on  conference  agrees  with  me  that  it  is  not, 
as  we  can  see,  worth  while  to  write  or  publish  any  answer, 
most  of  what  is  here  said  having  been  already  thrown  out 
in  the  "  Reflector,"  or  consisting  of  such  far  fetched  reasons 
and  strained  constructions  of  the  act  of  Assembly  and  pur 
port  of  the  petition  and  charter,  that  they  demonstrate  the 
gentleman  to  be  determined  to  oppose  and  find  fault  with 
everything  that  does  not  coincide  exactly  with  his  favorite 
scheme  of  absolute  independency  both  in  religion  and  gov 
ernment.  And  when  men  are  resolved  to  wrangle  and  find 

1  M S.  Autobiography. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  193 

fault,  what  end  is  there  in  answering  them  ?  But  especially 
I  imagine  that  of  all  persons,  you  nor  I  nor  any  of  the  family 
should  be  in  the  least  concerned  in  any  disputes  with  respect 
to  the  College.  For  those  in  the  opposition  to  have  it  in  their 
power  once  to  suggest  that  you  are  at  the  head  of  a  party,  or 
promoting  any  particular  scheme,  must  be  highly  prejudi 
cial,  and  will  give  them  great  strength  in  their  endeavors  to 
bias  the  Assembly.  A  very  small  matter  in  this  way  may 
be  magnified  and  improved  to  the  most  pernicious  purposes. 
Let  us  by  all  means  at  present  stand  perfectly  neuter.  If 
they,  whose  business  it  is,  form  a  college  whose  model  you 
approve,  you  can  in  this  case  accept  the  Presidentship  with 
cheerfulness.  If  they  do  not,  you  can  retreat  with  honor. 
Should  I  write  anything,  it  would  certainly  be  discovered  by 
them,  and  must  in  these  circumstances  do  vastly  more  hurt 
than  in  any  case  it  would  possibly  do  good.  This  I  humbly 
suggest  as  my  opinion  in  the  matter.  However,  if  an  answer 
be  finally  thought  necessary,  Mr.  Wetmore  will  doubtless 
be  ready  to  write,  and  I  have  suggested  to  him,  what  has  oc 
curred  to  me  in  reading  of  it.  The  Protest  I  think  goes  upon 
a  wrong  supposition,  namely,  that  the  charter  petitioned  for 
is  to  establish  a  college  without  the  approbation  and  almost 
independent  of  the  Assembly  or  Legislature,  to  the  support 
of  which  nevertheless  the  moneys  granted  by  the  two  acts 
of  Assembly  are  to  be  applied,  contrary  to  the  intentions  and 
design  of  the  Assembly  in  making  the  grant,  which  I  take 
it  is  by  no  means  aimed  at  by  anybody,  nor  indeed  I  con 
ceive  can  possibly  be.  The  question  I  think  truly  is  whether 
it  be  advisable  for  the  Trustees  to  recommend  or  the  Legis 
lature  to  accept  the  generous  offer  of  Trinity  Church  on  the 
condition  they  give,  or  not.  In  this  light  nothing  I  think 
in  the  Protest  can  have  any  great  weight.  It  would  be 
plainly  unreasonable  for  the  Church  to  make  the  offer  with 
out  the  condition  annexed.  And  TWENTY  reasons,  I  think, 
might  be  given  why  it  would  be  advisable  for  the  Legisla 
ture  to  accept  it  on  those  terms.  What  is  said  about  the 
establishment  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  several  other 

13 


194  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

things  which  are  hinted  at,  are  manifestly  designed  to  raise 
a  clamor  and  excite  jealousies,  as  they  have  not  even  the 
remote  resemblance  of  a  reason  pro  or  con.  on  any  just  or 
reasonable  state  of  the  question.  However,  let  us  by  all 
means  let  them  entirely  alone.  Let  those  whose  proper  busi 
ness  it  is  exert  themselves.  'Tis  enough  for  us  to  say,  .... 
God  speed  ye.  I  know  you  will  excuse  my  freedom,  and 
am,  honored  Sir, 

Your  obedient  son  and  servt, 

WM.  SAML.  JOHNSON. 

June  13th,  1754. 

In  writing  to  him,  June  17,  1754,  the  father  said : 
"  I  very  much  commend  your  prudence  ;  but  even 
caution,  one  of  the  best  things  in  the  world,  may  be 
carried  too  far  as  well  as  humility  itself.  We  must 
have  resolution  to  do  good  in  spite  of  opposition,  as 
well  as  discretion  to  direct  it  to  the  best  purposes. 
As  to  the  Protest,  I  hope  there  will  be  no  occasion  for 
you  or  me  to  answer  it."  He  may  have  known  at 
this  time  what  was  already  contemplated,  if  not  be 
gun  ;  for  "  A  Brief  Vindication  of  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Trustees  relating  to  the  College,  containing  a  suf 
ficient  Answer  to  the  late  famous  Protest,  with  its 
Twenty  unanswerable  Reasons,"  was  written  "  by  an 
Impartial  Hand," —  this  hand  representing  Mr.  Ben 
jamin  Nicoll,  a  son  of  Dr.  Johnson's  wife  by  her  first 
husband.  He  was  a  lawyer  of  distinction  in  New 
York,  one  of  the  governors  of  the  College,  and  "  the 
life  and  soul  of  the  whole  affair."  While  the  contest 
was  going  on,  Dr.  Johnson  published  his  plan  of  edu 
cation,  and  appointed  a  day  for  examining  and  ad 
mitting  candidates.  He  commenced  with  a  class  of 
ten  students,  including  two  from  other  colleges,  who 
met  him  for  the  first  time  on  the  17th  of  July  in 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  195 

the  vestry-room  of  the  school-house  belonging  to  the 
Corporation  of  Trinity  Church.  He  continued  his 
instructions  without  intermission  till  September  1st, 
when  he  was  summoned  to  the  sick-bed  of  his  elder 
son,  whom  he  had  little  expectation  of  finding  alive, 
but  who,  after  remaining  a  long  time  in  a  critical 
state,  finally  recovered.  During  his  absence,  which 
continued  till  November  10,  the  Royal  Charter  passed 
the  seals,  incorporating  the  Governors  of  King's 
College  in  New  York ;  and  thus  what  had  been  the 
subject  of  such  violent  opposition  became  a  fixed 
provision  of  law.  The  time  had  now  come  for  him 
to  make  a  decision  whether  he  would  remain  in 
Stratford  or  go  to  New  York.  The  services  of  his 
Church  had  been  conducted  in  his  absence  by  his 
younger  son,  who  was  preparing  for  Holy  Orders, 
and  with  the  aid  of  the  neighboring  clergy  he  had 
managed  to  keep  the  people  from  much  uneasiness 
during  the  protracted  struggle  for  settling  the  ques 
tion  about  a  charter  for  the  College.  The  following 
letter  from  the  Rector  of  Trinity  Church  sums  up  the 
final  contest,  and  puts  before  him  the  responsibility 
of  resigning  his  pastoral  charge,  and  entering  upon 
the  full  duties  of  the  Presidency :  — 

DEAR  SIR,  —  Mr.  Nicoll  being  obliged  to  go  out  of  town, 
communicated  your  letter  to  me  in  order  that  I  might  an 
swer  it.  On  Thursday  last  the  Charter  passed  the  Governor 
and  Council,  and  was  ordered  to  be  forthwith  engrossed. 
On  Friday,  the  Trustees  appointed  by  act  of  Assembly,  ac 
cording  to  order  of  the  House,  delivered  in  a  report  of  their 
proceedings  conformable  to  the  act,  which  report  was  signed 
by  all  but  William  Livingston,  who  objected  to  the  report  as 
not  being  complete,  because  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  pro- 


196  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

ceedings  with  regard  to  the  Charter,  which  the  Governor 
and  the  rest  of  the  gentlemen  thought  unnecessary.  Where 
upon  Livingston  delivered  in  a  separate  report  in  full,  con- 
taming  his  famous  Protest,  etc.  This  occasioned  a  great 
ferment  in  the  House,  and  issued  for  that  day  in  a  resolve 
that  Livingston's  Report  should  be  printed  at  large,  and 
the  affair  postponed  to  farther  consideration  on  Wednesday 
next.  They  had  a  majority  of  fourteen  to  eight,  but  three 
of  our  friends  were  absent,  and  it  was  with  much  difficulty 
that  they  were  prevented  from  censuring  the  conduct  of  the 
Trustees  and  returning  thanks  to  Livingston.  We  were  all 
afraid  that  this  would  have  retarded  the  Sealing  of  the  Char 
ter,  and  some  well-wishers  to  the  thing  would  have  consented 
to  the  retarding  of  it,  had  not  the  Governor  appeared  reso 
lute  and  come  to  town  on  Saturday  and  fixed  the  Seal  to  it ; 
and  to  do  him  justice,  he  has  given  us  a  good  majority  of 
Churchmen,  no  less  than  eleven  of  the  Vestry  being  of  the 
number.  There  are  but  eight  of  the  Dutch  Church,  most  of 
them  good  men  and  true,  and  two  Dissenters.  We  are,  how 
ever,  puzzled  what  to  advise  you  as  to  resigning  your  mission. 
I  have  been  with  Mr.  Chambers  this  morning,  and  though  it 
be  the  opinion  of  most  of  the  gentlemen  that  you  ought  to 
resign  and  trust  to  Providence  for  the  issue  of  things  and 
come  away  immediately,  yet  we  would  rather  choose  if  pos 
sible,  that  you  should  put  off  the  resignation  for  a  fortnight 
or  three  weeks,  and  come  down  immediately,  because  some 
are  not  so  clear  with  regard  to  the  £500  support,  though 
others  think  we  cannot  be  deprived  of  it.  But  since  this 
conversation  with  Mr.  Chambers  we  have  had  some  glim 
mering  light.  I  went  from  Mr.  Chambers'  to  Mr.  Watts' 
(who  is  unhappily  confined  with  the  rheumatism),  and  met 
two  Dutch  members  coming  out  of  his  house,  who,  as  he  told 
me,  came  to  make  proposals  for  an  accommodation,  and  all 
they  desired  was  a  Dutch  Professor  of  Divinity,  which,  if 
granted,  they  would  all  join  us,  and  give  the  money.  This 
I  doubt  not  will  be  done  unless  the  Governor  should  oppose 
it,  who  is  much  incensed  at  the  Dutch  for  petitioning  the 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  197 

Assembly  on  that  head,  but  I  make  no  doubt  but  he  may  be 
pacified. 

Upon  the  whole,  it  is  the  opinion  of  all  that  you  must 
come  down  as  soon  as  possible,  and  the  advice  of  Mr.  Cham 
bers  and  myself,  in  which  I  believe  Benny  concurs,  that  you 
defer  the  resignation  of  your  mission  a  little  longer,  as  it  will 
be  a  means  of  getting  a  good  subscription  for  your  support 
in  case  this  accommodation  with  the  Assembly  should  fail, 
which,  however,  I  am  inclined  to  think  will  not  fail.  In  a 
word,  it  seems  you  have  put  your  hand  to  the  plow,  and  I 
know  not  how  you  can  now  look  back.  Providence,  I  trust, 
is  still  on  our  side,  and  everybody  is  solicitous  for  your  re 
turn. 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  in  the  greatest  hurry, 
Yours,  etc. 

HEN.  BARCLAY. 

I  have  not  time  to  give  you  a  list  of  the  Governors,  nor 
indeed  can  I  recollect  them  all.  The  whole  number  is  forty- 
one  :  seventeen  ex-officio  and  twenty -four  private  gentlemen, 
hi  which  number  there  are  at  present  but  eight  of  the  Dutch 
Church,  the  French,  Lutheran,  Presbyterian  Ministers,  and 
Will.  Livingston,  —  so  that  we  have  a  majority  of  twenty- 
nine  to  twelve,  and  in  these  twelve  are  included  Mr.  Rich 
ards,  John  Cruger,  Leonard  Lispenard,  and  the  Treasurer, 
all  our  good  friends. 

MONDAY,  10  o'clock,  Nov.  4,  1754. 

Dr.  Johnson  returned  to  New  York  to  find  the  con 
troversy  about  the  College  not  yet  closed.  The  op 
position  set  their  pens  running  to  prevent  the  Assem 
bly  from  granting  any  more  favors ;  but  he  did  not 
heed  them,  and  sent  for  some  of  his  furniture  and 
books,  and  wrote  to  his  son  Wm.  Samuel,  December  2, 
to  say :  "  It  is  not  doubted  but  the  next  session  will 
give  us  the  money  to  build.  Meantime  it  is  resolved  to 
have  a  subscription  to  begin  with,  and  doubtless  money 


198  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

enough  will  be  got  twice  told  to  build  a  President's 
house,  which  will  begin  early  in  the  spring.  And 
as  to  my  security,  the  Trustees  resolve  to  meet  this 
week  and  confirm  what  they  did  before,  nothing  doubt 
ing  but  the  £500  per  annum  is  in  their  power,  and 
unalterably  at  their  disposal  for  my  support."  By 
the  advice  of  his  friends,  he  was  to  lodge  during  the 
winter  with  his  son,  Mr.  Benjamin  Nicoll,  with  whom 
he  appears  to  have  previously  made  his  home  ;  and  the 
Vestry  of  Trinity  Church  voted  to  pay  him  the  salary 
as  usual,  and  "  in  consideration  of  his  advanced  years 
and  the  duties  of  the  College,"  to  require  of  him 
"  only  to  read  prayers  on  Sunday,  and  to  preach  one 
Sunday  in  a  month  at  church  and  chapel,"  or  as 
might  be  agreed  upon  by  the  Rector  and  occasion 
might  demand. 

His  endeavors  met  with  much  embarrassment,  and 
"  nothing,"  he  wrote  again  to  his  son  after  the  Holi 
days,  "  I  assure  you  could  have  induced  me  to  en 
dure  it,  but  the  hopes  of  rendering  the  little  remain 
der  of  my  life  more  useful  to  mankind,  and  especially 
in  laying  a  foundation  for  sound  learning  and  true 
religion  in  the  rising  and  future  generations."  He 
worked  vigorously  on  to  bring  things  into  shape  and 
order,  drew  from  the  Liturgy  a  form  for  the  daily 
prayers,  composed  the  Collect  for  the  College,  and  had 
them  printed  with  the  Psalter.  It  added  to  his  anxi 
ety  that  his  flock  in  Stratford  was  without  a  shepherd. 
Both  his  sons  acted  as  lay-readers,  —  the  elder  tak 
ing  his  place  after  the  younger  had  joined  the  father 
in  New  York  to  pursue  his  theological  studies.  Mr. 
Beach  of  Newtown  had  been  thought  of  for  his  suc 
cessor,  and  all  would  have  welcomed  him  to  the  post, 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  199 

but  he  could  not  conscientiously  leave  his  own  church 
vacant.  In  a  letter  to  his  son  Wm.  Samuel,  January 
20,  1755,  Johnson  said :  "  The  melancholy  condition 
of  my  poor  destitute  people  is  very  affecting  to  me. 
I  talked  with  Ogilvie  and  Chandler  to  no  purpose  ; 
nor  do  I  think  there  is  the  least  probability  that  Mr. 
Brown,  or  Mr.  Seabury,  Jun.?  would  entertain  the 
least  thoughts  of  a  removal,  and  since  there  is  no 
hope  of  Stiles,1  I  am  sorry  he  should  have  had  it  in 
his  power  to  make  a  merit  of  his  refusal.  I  am 
very  sorry  Mr.  Beach  cannot  be  prevailed  upon  to 
remove  ;  and  what  course  you  can  now  take,  I  cannot 
conceive.  Me  thinks  I  should  be  for  trying  Mr.  Lea 
rning,  with  the  utmost  endeavor  to  get  him  for  Strat 
ford  or  Newtown.  I  confess  from  his  talk  to  me, 
there  seems  little  hope,  yet  it  seems  to  me  worth 
while  to  try.  Who  knows  what  may  be  done  ?  Can 
there  be  no  thoughts  of  Sam.  Brown  for  Newtown  ? 
or  is  there  no  young  man  that  would  go  for  so  valua 
ble  a  parish  ?  It  is  certainly  much  preferable  to  any 
thing  the  Dissenters  can  give.  There  was  some  talk 
once  of  one  Street,  of  Wallingford.  What  has  come 
of  him  ?  " 

The  establishment  of  a  separate  religious  society 
and  church  in  Yale  College,  at  first  unacceptable  to 
many  of  the  Congregationalists,  and  the  adoption 
about  this  time  of  regulations  which  infringed  upon 
the  rights  of  Episcopal  students,  gave  importance 
to  the  position  of  Dr.  Johnson  as  the  head  of  King's 
College.  It  was  the  fault  of  the  times  to  take  a  nar 
row  view  of  Christian  liberty  ;  but  after  a  parish  had 
been  formed,  a  church  built,  and  a  Missionary  of  the 

1  Ezra  Stiles,  afterwards  President  of  Yale  College. 


200  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  stationed  in 
New  Haven,  it  was  expected  and  claimed  that  Episco 
pal  students  should  be  allowed  to  prefer  their  own 
mode  of  worship  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  not  subjected 
to  a  penalty  for  declining  to  attend  those  services  in 
the  College  Chapel,  designed  to  guard  and  perpetuate 
the  Puritan  faith.  The  two  sons  of  the  Missionary 
(Punderson)  were  not  exempted  from  the  rigor  of 
the  offensive  statute.  The  separation  and  withdrawal 
of  all  students  from  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society, 
where  with  the  officers  of  the  College  they  had  been 
hitherto  accustomed  and  required  to  worship,  and 
limiting  them  to  the  chapel,  involved  questions  of 
internal  orthodoxy ;  and  the  long  and  fierce  con 
tention  which  sprung  up  and  affected  to  some  extent 
the  whole  colony,  was  entirely  outside  the  rights  of 
Episcopalians,  and  only  concerned  them  so  far  that  it 
made  them  more  desirous  to  keep  their  sons  as  much 
as  possible  under  the  teaching  of  the  Church. 

President  Clap  defended  the  law  in  its  full  opera 
tion,  and  undertook  to  show  that  it  was  "  inconsistent 
with  the  original  design  of  the  founders,"  to  grant 
special  favors  to  Episcopal  students.  Johnson,  who 
for  many  years  had  been  on  the  most  friendly  terms 
with  him,  replied  warmly  to  his  statements,  and  in 
sisted  that  the  chief  benefactors  of  the  College  and 
the  proportionate  share  of  Churchmen  in  its  yearly 
support  contemplated  a  common  benefit,  and  forbid 
the  supposition  that  the  children  of  Episcopal  parents 
should  ever  be  required  to  "  go  out  of  their  own 
houses  to  meeting,  when  there  was  a  church  at  their 
doors."  The  following  letter  is  an  earnest  vindication 
of  his  views  :  — 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  201 

STKATFORD,  February  5,  1754. 

REV.  AND  DEAR  Sin,  —  Tho'  I  am  but  in  a  poor  condition 
for  writing,  I  can't  forbear  a  few  lines  in  answer  to  yours  of 
January  30th. 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  congratulation  on  my  being 
chosen  President  of  their  intended  College  at  New  York, 
and  I  shall  desire  by  all  means,  if  I  undertake  it,  to  hold  a 
good  correspondence  not  only  as  Colleges  but  as  Christians, 
supposing  you  and  the  Fellows  of  your  College  act  on  the 
same  equitable,  catholic,  and  Christian  principles  as  we 
unanimously  propose  to  act  upon,  i.  e.,  to  admit  that  the  chil 
dren  of  the  Church  may  go  to  church  whenever  they  have 
opportunity,  as  we  think  of  nothing  but  to  admit  that  the 
children  of  dissenting  parents  have  leave  to  go  to  their 
meetings  ;  nor  can  I  see  anything  like  an  argument  in  all 
you  have  said  to  justify  the  forbidding  it.  And  I  am  pro 
digiously  mistaken  if  you  did  not  tell  me  it  was  an  allowed 
and  settled  rule  with  you  heretofore. 

The  only  point  in  question,  as  I  humbly  conceive,  is, 
whether  there  ought  of  right  to  be  any  such  law  in  your  Col 
lege  as,  either  in  words  or  by  necessary  consequence,  forbids 
the  liberty  we  contend  for  !  What  we  must  beg  leave  to  in 
sist  on  is,  That  there  ought  not ;  and  that  it  is  highly  injuri 
ous  to  forbid  it ;  unless  you  can  make  it  appear  That  you 
ever  had  a  right  to  exclude  the  people  of  the  Church  belong 
ing  to  this  Colony,  from  having  the  benefit  of  Public  educa 
tion  in  your  College,  without  their  submitting  to  the  hard  con 
dition  of  not  being  allowed  to  do  what  they  believe  in  their 
conscience  it  is  their  indispensable  duty  to  do,  i.  e.,  to  require 
their  children  to  go  to  church  whenever  they  have  opportunity, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  right  to  accept  and  hold  such  vast  ben 
efactions  from  gentlemen  of  the  Church  of  England,  ivherewith 
to  support  you  in  maintaining  such  a  law  in  exclusion  of  such 
a  liberty.  Can  you  think  those  gentlemen  would  ever  have 
given  such  benefactions  to  such  a  purpose  !  And  ought  it  not 
to  be  considered  at  the  same  time,  that  the  parents  of  these 
children  contribute  also  their  proportion  every  year  to  the 
support  of  the  College  ? 


202  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

Your  argument  in  a  former  letter  was,  That  it  is  incon 
sistent  with  the  original  design  of  the  founders,  which  was 
only  to  provide  ministers  for  your  churches.  But  pray,  Sir, 
why  may  not  our  Church  also  be  provided  for  with  ministers 
from  one  common  College  as  well  as  your  churches  ?  And 
ought  not  the  catholic  design  of  the  principal  benefactors 
also  in  strict  justice  to  be  regarded,  who,  in  the  sense  of  the 
English  law,  are  to  be  reckoned  among  the  founders  ?  See 
Viner,  on  the  Title  FOUNDERS.  What  Mr.  Yale's  views  1 
were,  I  had  not  opportunity  of  knowing,  though,  doubtless, 
they  were  the  same  that  we  suppose.  But  I  was  knowing 
to  Bp.  Berkeley's,  which  were,  that  his  great  Donation 
should  be  equally  for  a  common  benefit,  without  respect  to 
parties.  For  I  was  myself  the  principal,  I  may  say  in  effect 
the  only  person  in  procuring  that  Donation,  and  with  those 
generous,  catholic,  and  charitable  views ;  though  you  (not 
willing,  it  seems,  that  Posterity  should  ever  know  this)  did 
not  think  fit  to  do  me  the  justice  in  the  History  of  the  Col 
lege  (though  humbly  suggested),  as  to  give  me  the  credit 
of  any,  the  least  influence  on  him  in  that  affair  ;  when  the 
truth  is,  had  it  not  been  for  my  influence  it  would  never 
have  been  done,  to  which  I  was  prompted  by  the  sincere 
desire  that  it  should  be  for  a  common  benefit,  when  I  could 
have  easily  procured  it  appropriated  to  the  Church.  But 
at  that  time  Mr.  Williams  also  pretended  a  mighty  catholic 
charitable  conviction  that  there  never  was  any  meaning  in 

1  Jeremiah  Dummer,  agent  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut,  writing  to  Gov.  Sal- 
tonstall,  from  "  Middle  Temple  [London],  14th  April,  1719,"  s&ys  :  "  I  heartily  con 
gratulate  you  upon  the  happy  union  of  the  Colony,  in  fixing  the  Colledge  at  New 
Haven,  after  some  differences  which  might  have  been  attended  with  ill  conse 
quences.  Mr.  Yale  is  very  much  rejoyc'd  at  this  good  news,  and  more  than  a  little 
pleas'd  with  his  being  the  Patron  of  such  a  seat  of  the  Muses.  Saving  that  he  ex- 
press't  at  first  some  kind  of  concern,  whether  it  was  well  in  him,  being  a  Church 
man,  to  promote  an  Academy  of  Dissenters.  But  when  we  had  di?cours't  that 
point  freely,  he  appear'd  convinc't  that  the  business  of  good  men  is  to  spread  relig 
ion  and  learning  among  mankind  without  being  too  fondly  attach't  to  particular 
Tenet",  about  which  the  world  never  was,  nor  never  will  be,  agreed.  Besides,  if  the 
Discipline  of  the  Church  of  England  be  most  agreeable  to  Scripture  and  primitive 
practice,  there's  no  better  way  to  make  men  sensible  of  it  than  by  giving  them  good 
learning."  —  State  Library,  Hartford.  Extract  from  Document  110  of  vol.  ii. 
"Foreign  Correspondence  with  Colonial  Agents,  1661-1732." 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  203 

it ;  it  being  at  the  very  same  juncture  that  he,  with  the 
Hampshire  ministers,  his  father  at  the  head  of  them,  were, 
in  their  great  charity,  contriving  a  letter  to  the  Bishop  of 
London  by  means  of  which  they  hoped  to  deprive  all  the 
Church  people  in  these  parts  of  their  ministers,  and  them  of 
their  support ;  the  same  charitable  aim  that  Mr.  Hobart l 
and  bis  friends  are  pursuing  at  this  day !  And  now  you, 
Gentle-men,  are  so  severe  as  to  establish  a  law  to  deprive  us 
of  the  benefit  of  a  public  education  for  our  children  too,  un 
less  we  will  let  them,  nay  require  them,  to  go  out  of  our 
own  houses  to  meeting,  when  there  is  a  church  at  our  doors. 
Indeed,  Sir,  I  must  say  this  appears  to  me  so  very  inju 
rious,  that  I  must  think  it  my  duty,  in  obedience  to  a  rule 
of  the  Society,  to  join  with  my  Brethren  in  complaining  of 
it  to  our  superiors  at  home,  if  it  be  insisted  upon,  —  which  is 
what  I  abhor  and  dread  to  be  brought  to ;  and,  therefore, 
by  the  love  of  our  dear  country  (in  which  we  desire  to  live, 
only  upon  a  par  with  you,  in  all  Christian  charity),  I  do 
beseech  you,  Gentlemen,  not  to  insist  upon  it.  Tell  it  not  in 
Gratli!  much  less  in  the  ears  of  our  dear  mother-country, 
that  any  of  her  daughters  should  deny  any  of  her  children 
leave  to  attend  on  her  worship  whenever  they  have  oppor 
tunity  for  it.  Surely  you  cannot  pretend  that  you  are  con 
science-bound  to  make  such  a  law,  or  that  it  would  be  an 
infraction  of  liberty  of  conscience  for  it  to  be  repealed  from 
home,  as  you  intimate.  This  would  be  carrying  matters  far 
indeed.  But  for  God's  sake  do  not  be  so  severe  to  think  in 
this  manner,  or  to  carry  things  to  this  pass  !  If  so,  let  Dis 
senters  never  more  complain  of  their  heretofore  persecutions 
or  hardships  in  England,  unless  they  have  us  tempted  to 
think  it  their  principle,  that  they  only  ought  to  be  tolerated, 
in  order  at  length  to  be  established,  that  they  may  have  the 
sole  privilege  of  persecuting  others.  But  I  beg  pardon  and 
forbear  ;  only  I  desire  it  may  be  considered,  how  ill  such  a 
principle  would  sound  at  this  time  of  day,  when  the  univer- 

i  Noah  Hobart,  a  Congregational  minister  at  Fairfield,  who  published  two  Addresses 
Jo  Members  of  the  Episcopal  Separation  in  New  England.    He  died  1773. 


204  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

Bal  Church  of  England  as  much  abhors  the  persecution  of 
Dissenters  as  they  can  themselves.  It  may  also  deserve  to 
be  considered  that  the  Government  at  home  would  probably 
be  so  far  from  going  into  the  formality  of  repealing  this  law 
that  they  would  declare  it  a  nullity  in  itself ;  and  not  only 
so,  but  even  the  corporation  that  hath  enacted  it ;  inasmuch 
as  it  seems  a  principle  in  law  that  a  corporation  cannot  make, 
a  corporation,  nor  can  one  be  made  without  his  Majesty's  act. 
See  Viner,  under  the  titles,  COKPORATION  and  BY-LAWS. 

You  mistake  me,  Sir.  I  did  not  say  that  Professors  of 
Divinity  do  not  preach.  I  knew  they  and  the  Heads,  etc., 
do  preach  in  their  turns  at  the  common  church,  to  which  all 
resort  to  sermon.  But  what  I  say  is,  that  they  do  not 
preach  as  Professors,  nor  do  they  ever  preach  in  private 
Colleges,  there  being  no  such  thing  as  preaching  in  the  Col 
lege  chapels,  but  only  at  St.  Mary's  and  Christ  Church, 
which  are  in  effect  cathedrals,  where  the  scholars  resort,  but 
not  exclusive  of  the  town's  people,  tho'  they  generally  go  to 
their  parish  churches. 

I  wonder  how  you  came  to  apprehend  I  had  any  scruples 
about  the  divinity  of  Christ.  I  am  with  you,  glad  we  agree 
so  far ;  and  I  would  desire  you  to  understand,  that  my  zeal 
for  that  sacred  Depositum,  the  Christian  faith,  founded  on 
those  principles,  —  a  coessential,  coeternal  Trinity,  and  the 
Divinity,  incarnation,  and  satisfaction  of  Christ, —  is  the  very 
and  sole  reason  of  my  zeal  for  the  Church  of  England,  and 
that  she  may  be  promoted,  supported,  and  well  treated  in 
these  countries  ;  as  I  have  been  long  persuaded  that  she  is, 
and  will  eventually  be  found,  the  only  stable  bulwark  against 
all  heresy  and  infidelity  which  are  coming  in  like  a  flood 
upon  us,  and  this,  as  I  apprehend,  by  reason  of  the  rigid 
Calvinism,  Antinomianism,  enthusiasm,  divisions,  and  sep 
arations,  which,  through  the  weakness  and  great  imperfec 
tion  of  your  constitution  (if  it  may  so  be  called),  are  so  rife 
and  rampant  among  us.  My  apprehension  of  this  was  the 
first  occasion  of  my  conforming  to  the  Church  (which  has 
been  to  my  great  comfort  and  satisfaction),  and  hath  been 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  205 

more  and  more  confirmed  by  what  has  occurred  ever  since. 
And  I  am  still  apt  to  think  that  no  well-meaning  Dove  that 
has  proper  means  and  opportunity  of  exact  consideration, 
will  ever  find  rest  to  the  sole  of  his  foot  amid  such  a  deluge, 
till  he  comes  into  the  Church  as  the  alone  ark  of  safety,  — 
all  whose  Articles,  Liturgy,  and  Homilies  taken  together  and 
explained  by  one  another,  and  by  the  writings  of  our  first 
Reformers,  according  to  their  original  sense,  shall  ever  be 
sacred  with  me  ;  which  sense,  as  I  appehend  it,  is  neither 
Calvinistical  nor  Arminian,  but  the  golden  mean,  and  accord 
ing  to  the  genuine  meaning  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  the 
original,  critically  considered  and  understood.  I  beg  pardon 
for  this  length,  which  I  did  not  design  at  first,  and  desire 
you  will  also  excuse  my  haste,  inaccuracy,  and  this  writing 
currente  calamo,  and  conclude  with  earnestly  begging  that 
neither  your  insisting  on  this  law  nor  anything  else,  may  oc- 
?ur  to  destroy  or  interrupt  our  harmony  and  friendship,  with 
which,  on  my  part  I  desire  ever  to  remain,  dear  Sir, 
Your  real  friend  and  humble  servant, 

S.  JOHNSON. 
P.  S.  —  I  wish  you  to  communicate  it  to  the  Fellows. 

Another  letter  from  President  Clap  received  his  at 
tention  when  he  was  on  the  eve  of  departing  for  New 
York.  The  issue  was  made  in  the  case  of  the  sons  of 
the  Missionary,  and  here  the  first  relaxation  of  the 
law  began.  For  Dr.  Johnson's  son  William  wrote 
him  from  Stratford  a  few  months  later  :  "  I  don't 
hear  any  talk  of  printing  against  the  President ;  am 
told  he  has  given  up  the  point  with  Mr.  Punderson's 
sons."  He  could  not  well  do  otherwise  after  the  fol 
lowing  letter,  dated :  — 

STRATFORD,  February  19,  1754. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  My  unsettled  condition  in  view  of  my  re 
moving  to  New  York,  must  be  my  apology  for  not  being 
more  particular  in  answer  to  yours  of  the  10th. 


206  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

If  there  was  not  good  reason  offered  to  support  my 
warmth  you  might  justly  fault  it,  but  I  must  think  it  was 
supported  with  abundant  reasons  which  you  have  nothing 
like  answered.  I  am  sure  the  Dissenters  in  England  had 
never  half  so  much  reason  to  excuse  their  many  pathetic 
declamations.  You  would  have  us,  it  seems,  be  deprived  of 
our  birthright  as  Englishmen,  and  at  the  same  time  be  per 
fectly  calm  and  easy  under  it.  Truly,  Sir,  I  must  think  it 
sufficient  to  raise  our  passions  to  be  denied  a  public  education 
for  our  children,  unless  we  will  in  direct  violation  of  our  con 
sciences  enjoin  them  to  go  to  dissenting  meeting  when  we 
have  a  church  at  our  doors. 

I  have  always  been  very  tender  of  the  charter  privileges  of 
this  Government,  and  ever  advised  our  Church  people  to  be 
easy,  and  do  all  they  could  to  promote  the  public  peace  and 
weal  as  things  stand  ;  but  by  your  proceedings  you  seem  re 
solved  to  provoke  us  to  be  enemies  to  the  Government,  when 
we  are  content  to  be  only  upon  a  par  with  our  neighbors,  and 
to  live  in  entire  love  and  peace  with  them  in  a  cheerful  sub 
mission  to  the  Government.  I  am  surprised  at  your  Politic* 
in  this  way  of  proceeding  with  us,  supposing  the  injustice 
and  uncharitableness  of  it  were  out  of  the  question.  How 
ever,  since  you  are  resolved  (being,  as  you  say,  in  possession) 
to  go  on  in  your  own  way,  you  must  even  proceed  ;  but  J  am 
very  much  mistaken  if  you  do  not  eventually  prove  your  own 
greatest  enemies. 

It  is  strange  to  me  that  merely  opening  a  church  at  New 
Haven  should  be  considered  by  any  of  you,  gentlemen,  as  a 
justifiable  provocation  to  interrupt  the  harmony  that  had 
subsisted  between  us,  when  we  do  not  aim  at  disturbing  you, 
but  only  at  judging  and  acting  for  ourselves.  Indeed  I  own 
I  have  never  been  very  zealous  and  active  in  the  affair,  but 
rather  hung  back,  as  I  apprehended  danger  of  some  gentle 
men's  making  disturbance  on  such  an  occasion  ;  but  I  do  not 
remember  that  I  told  you  I  was  with  you  —  of  the  mind  it 
would  not  be  for  the  public  good  to  have  a  church  there,  as 
you  state  it.  However,  when  I  saw  what  loose  principles 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  207 

were  obtaining  among  you  and  the  confused  state  you  were 
in,  I  thought  it  might  be  much  conducive  to  the  public  good 
to  have  a  church  there,  especially  after  such  a  virulent  and 
abusive  spirit  as  Mr.  Hobart  thought  fit  to  raise  against  the 
Church,  to  whose  pious  labors  I  suppose  it  was  chiefly  owing 
that  the  Society  fixed  a  mission  and  Mr.  Punderson  there. 

If  there  had  been  such  a  general  law  before,  as  you  say, 
yet  this  I  very  well  remember,  that  you  told  me  you  had 
made  certain  Rules  under  the  name  of  Customs,  which  I  un 
derstood  to  be  written  and  agreed  to  by  the  Fellows ;  one  of 
which  was  that  the  children  of  the  Church,  their  parents  so 
desiring,  should  have  free  liberty  to  go  to  church  whenever 
they  had  opportunity,  or  to  this  effect. 

I  may  be,  perhaps,  mistaken  in  saying  there  is  never 
preaching  in  any  of  the  College  chapels.  There  may  be 
those  two  or  three  exceptions  you  mention  ;  my  copy  of  the 
Oxford  Laws  was  and  is  at  New  York ;  so  that  I  could  not 
turn  to  those  paragraphs  you  cited ;  but  surely  you  cannot 
think  them  anything  to  your  purpose  of  holding  constant 
meeting  only  in  your  Hall,1  and  requiring  the  Church  chil 
dren  to  attend  them  when  they  have  a  church  to  go  to,  and 
their  parents  order  their  attendance  there  ! 

If,  indeed,  you  are  an  independent  Society  or  Government, 
or  the  Charter  had  given  you  such  unlimited  and  uncontrol 
lable  powers,  I  own  there  would  have  been  something  plausi 
ble  in  your  reasoning  ;  but  then  it  would  equally  conclude 
against  any  toleration  of  the  Dissenters  in  England,  and 
consequently  must  now  be  interpreted  to  be  contrary  to  law, 
and  as  far  as  in  you  lies  to  aim  at  a  subversion  of  the  present 
English  Constitution. 

I  much  wonder  you  cannot  understand  my  stating  of  the 
case.  I  cannot  conceive  of  any  words  that  could  make  it 
more  intelligible.  If,  indeed,  with  Holies,  etc.,  you  thought 
power  to  do  anything  would  give  a  right  to  it,  then  your  ar 
gument  from  possession  is  just ;  but  I  trust  that  is  not  your 

1  Public  worship  was  established  in  the  College  Hall  preparatory  to  the  erection  of 
a  chapel. 


208  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

tenet.  The  question  then  is,  1st.  Whether  it  be  right  in 
itself  for  any  Society,  however  voluntary  or  independent,  to 
require  as  a  condition  of  enjoying  the  privileges  of  it  (and 
especially  so  great  a  privilege  as  that  of  a  public  education), 
that  any  person  that  is  free  of  that  Society,  or  lorn  in  it* 
should  be  obliged  to  act  contrary  to  his  conscience,  or  to  what 
he  is  really  persuaded  is  his  duty  in  matters  of  religion,  sup 
posing  that  his  religious  principles  be  not  in  their  nature  sub 
versive  of  the  State  ?  And  then,  2dly.  Supposing  this  could 
be  resolved  in  the  affirmative,  Whether  your  Charter  has 
given  this  government  such  a  right,  or  a  right  to  erect  any 
Corporation  with  such  a  right  or  power  as  to  insist  on  such  a 
condition;  or  indeed  could  do  it  consistent  with  the  English 
Constitution  ?  I  trow  not.  And  it  is  plain  to  me,  that  un 
less  you  prove  the  affirmative  of  both  these  questions,  which 
you  don't  attempt,  you  really  do  nothing  to  the  purpose. 
But  I  humbly  conceive  it  is  most  proper  to  have  these  ques 
tions  canvassed  before  our  Assembly  here,  before  we  trouble 
our  Superior  at  home. 

But  in  truth  the  College  is  ours  in  proportion  as  really  as 
yours,  and  you  can  no  more  be  bound  to  pursue  the  inten 
tion  of  the  founders  in  your  sense,  exclusive  of  the  Church, 
than  Oxford  was  to  continue  their  Colleges  appropriated  to 
the  Roman  Catholics,  if  so  much ;  I  mean  in  point  of  equity. 
There  may  be  some  small  inconveniences  in  granting  such  a 
liberty,  but  they  are  not  to  be  compared  with  the  inconven 
iences  which  will  attend  denying  it. 

If  what  was  mentioned  was  no  designed  omission  in  the 
first  draught  of  your  History,  yet  it  seems  to  have  been  de 
signedly  persisted  in  after  what  I  humbly  suggested  to  you. 
Indeed,  Sir,  your  College  never  had  a  more  hearty  friend, 
without  respect  to  any  party,  than  I  was  and  desire  still  to 
continue,  if  we  can  only  stand  upon  an  equal  foot,  but  I  am 
really  and  tenderly  hurt  by  this  disputed  prohibition.  It  is 
hard,  very  hard  indeed,  if  in  an  English  colony  the  Church 
must  be  treated  upon  the  same  foot  with  every  idle  sectary. 
But  I  am  insensibly  got  much  further  than  I  intended. 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  209 

However,  if  I  can  find  leisure  to  answer  your  state  of  the 
case  and  reasoning  upon  it  more  particularly,  which  I  think 
may  be  easily  done,  and  with  as  much  calmness  as  you  can 
desire,  you  may  expect  to  hear  further  from  me.  Mean 
time,  I  remain,  dear  Sir, 

Your  friend  and  humble  servant, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

His  time  and  thoughts  were  so  much  absorbed  in 
the  controversy  about  the  College  in  New  York,  that 
he  does  not  appear  to  have  answered  President  Clap, 
as  he  intimated.  He  and  his  friends  were  deter 
mined  to  construct  it  on  a  liberal  basis ;  but  there 
was  as  much  opposition  among  Presbyterians  to  allow 
ing  Episcopalians  to  dominate  therein,  as  there  was 
among  the  authorities  of  Yale  College  to  giving  the 
children  of  the  Church  the  privilege  of  worshipping 
on  Sundays  in  their  own  sanctuary.  His  son  William 
wrote  him,  August  2,  1754,  and  in  the  course  of  his 
letter  said  :  "  We  had  yesterday  a  visit  from  President 
Clap  ;  I  suppose  on  his  return  from  advising  with  his 
brother  Holt  art.  He  was  very  inquisitive  about  your 
College,  and  wanted  much  to  see  your  '  Oxonia  Illus- 
trata,'  which  I  handed  to  him.  He  pored  upon  it  a 
considerable  time,  and  at  length  said :  *  Really,  I  think 
it  seems  to  agree  very  well  with  a  pretty  long  His 
tory  (I  forget  the  author's  name)  that  I  have  lately 
been  reading,  which  I  sent  for  from  Cambridge  Li 
brary/  He  said  not  a  word  about  the  controversy, 
though  I  believe  he  does  not  intend  to  give  it  over, 
by  his  studying  the  History  of  Oxford  so  much." 

Dr.  Johnson  finally  resigned  the  Mission  of  Strat 
ford,1  which  he  had  held  thirty-two  years,  and  settled 

1  The  Rev.  Edward  Winslow  was  appointed  his  successor,  May  2,  1755. 
14 


210  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

with  his  family  in  New  York,  where  he  devoted  him 
self  to  the  duties  of  the  College  at  the  same  time 
that  he  fulfilled  the  office  of  a  lecturer  in  Trinity 
Church.  When  he  came  to  admit  a  second  class,  he 
needed  some  assistance,  and  as  Mr.  Whittelsey,  who 
had  previously  been  chosen  Tutor,  was  prevented  by 
the  failure  of  his  health  from  accepting  the  appoint 
ment,  the  Trustees  gave  the  place  to  the  younger 
son  of  Dr.  Johnson.  The  internal  affairs  of  the  Col 
lege  were  now  prosperous,  and  liberal  subscriptions 
and  benefactions  were  obtained  to  further  its  interests. 
But  the  war  without  was  unended.  The  Presbyterian 
faction  went  on  with  its  clamor,  and  expected  to  find 
in  Sir  Charles  Hardy,  the  new  Governor  of  the  Prov 
ince,  a  sympathizing  friend,  and  prepared  an  inflam 
matory  address,  against  his  arrival,  to  disaffect  him 
towards  the  College.  But  it  was  received  with  cold 
ness,  while  the  address  of  the  Governors  or  Trustees 
delivered  by  the  President,  was  listened  to  "  with  the 
utmost  complaisance ; "  and  signifying  his  desire  to 
see  the  subscription  paper,  it  was  taken  to  him  the 
next  day,  when  the  Governor  "  immediately  took  his 
pen  and  subscribed  £500.  All  this,"  says  Johnson  in 
his  autobiography,  "  was  such  a  mortification  to  the 
faction,  that  from  this  time  forward  they  shut  their 
mouths,  and  the  College  met  with  no  more  opposition. 
And  in  a  little  time  it  was  agreed,  for  peace*  sake, 
with  the  Assembly,  to  divide  the  money  equally  be 
tween  the  College  and  the  public."  This  was  the 
money  raised  by  lottery. 

His  younger  son  had  completed  his  theological 
studies,  and  resigning  his  tutorship,  embarked  for 
England  for  Holy  Orders,  Nov.  8,  1755,  with  a  view 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  211 

to  assist  and  succeed  the  venerable  Mr.  Standard  at 
West  Chester.  It  was  a  painful  thing  for  the  father 
to  part  with  him.  He  wrote  his  other  son  shortly  be 
fore  the  decision  :  "  Your  brother  can  never  go  with 
better  advantage  than  now,  so  that  it  is  doubtless  best- 
he  should  now  go.  But  I  tremble  at  the  thoughts 
of  the  difficulties  and  dangers  to  which  he  must  be 
exposed,  and  pray  God  I  may  live  to  see  him  safe 
returned  again,  and  could  then  cheerfully  sing  my 
mine  dimittis" 

He  had  already  acquainted  the  Venerable  Society 
with  the  foundation  of  the  College  and  his  own  elec 
tion  to  the  Presidency ;  and  Sherlock,  the  Bishop  of 
London,  had  written  him  a  letter  of  congratulation  in 
view  of  the  good  service  which  this  Institution  might 
do  for  the  Church  of  England  in  the  Northern  Colo 
nies.  But  the  Vestry  of  Trinity  Church  took  occa 
sion  to  write  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bearcroft,  Secretary  of 
the  Society,  and  appeal  directly  for  sympathy  and  aid 
in  behalf  of  the  new  enterprise.  The  letter  thus 
written  was  intrusted  to  the  care  of  Mr.  George  Har- 
ison,  one  of  their  number,  and  Mr.  William  Johnson, 
and  after  speaking  of  the  opposers,  it  went  on  to  say 
of  the  friends  of  the  College :  — 

They  have  begun  a  subscription  amongst  themselves,  and 
are  daily  purchasing  materials  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a 
handsome,  convenient  edifice,  which,  God  willing,  they  pur 
pose  to  begin  next  spring  ;  and  they  are  induced  to  hope, 
that  as  the  dissenting  Seminary  in  New  Jersey  has  had  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland  engaged  in  its 
behalf  last  year,  as  well  as  the  dissenting  interest  in  Eng 
land,  and,  as  we  are  informed,  have  collected  a  very  consid 
erable  sum  of  money,  so  our  brethren  in  England  will  be 


212  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

ready  to  contribute  to  preserve  the  Church  in  this  part  of 
the  world  from  the  contempt  its  enemies  are  endeavoring  to 
bring  upon  it. 

The  Dissenters  have  already  three  seminaries  in  the 
Northern  Governments.  They  hold  their  synods,  presbyte 
ries,  and  associations,  and  exercise  the  whole  of  their  ecclesi 
astical  government  to  the  no  small  advantage  of  their  cause ; 
whilst  those  churches  which  are  branches  of  the  National 
Establishment  are  deprived  not  only  of  the  benefit  of  a  reg 
ular  church  government,  but  their  children  are  debarred  the 
privilege  of  a  liberal  education,  unless  they  will  submit  to 
accept  of  it  on  such  conditions  as  Dissenters  require ;  which, 
in  Yale  College,  is  to  submit  to  a  fine  as  often  as  they  at 
tend  public  worship  in  the  Church  of  England,  communi 
cants  only  excepted,  and  that  only  on  Christmas  and  sacra 
ment  days.  This  we  cannot  but  look  upon  as  hard  meas 
ure,  especially  as  we  can  with  good  conscience  declare  that 
we  are  so  far  from  that  bigotry  and  narrowness  of  spirit  they 
have  of  late  been  pleased  to  charge  us  with,  that  we  would 
not,  were  it  in  our  power,  lay  the  least  restraint  on  any 
man's  conscience,  and  should  heartily  rejoice  to  continue  in 
brotherly  love  and  charity  with  all  our  Protestant  brethren."  l 

Four  months  elapsed  and  no  intelligence  had  been 
received  by  Dr.  Johnson  of  the  arrival  of  his  son  in 
England.  He  reached  his  destination,  however,  after 
an  extremely  perilous  voyage,  a  week  before  Christ 
mas,  and  landing  at  Deal,  proceeded  to  Canterbury, 
where  of  all  the  clergy  who  befriended  the  father  and 
his  companions  thirty-three  years  before,  Mr.  Gosling 
alone  survived  to  welcome  the  son  and  give  him  hos 
pitality.  But  on  arriving  in  London,  the  seat  of  the 
Society's  operations,  he  found  several  of  his  father's 
old  friends  and  correspondents,  and  writing  to  him 
January  10th,  he  expressed  some  disappointment  that 

1  Berrian's  History  Trinity  Church,  p.  103 


OF   SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  213 

his  application  to  be  ordained  for  West  Chester  was 
heard  with  so  little  favor.  He  had  called  on  Dr. 
Bearcroft,  Christmas  Eve,  who  received  him  rather 
coldly  ;  and  again  he  had  waited  on  him  ten  days 
later,  when  he  was  more  kind,  and  "  talked  very 
freely  of  Dr.  McSparran  and  his  ambitious  views  ;  of 
Fowle  and  Norwalk,  Mr.  Gibbs,1  the  state  of  the 
Church  throughout  New  England  ;  of  the  hasty  rec 
ommendations  of  young  gentlemen  for  orders  from 
America,  and  their  being  sent  many  times  very  raw, 
without  first  obtaining  leave  to  come,  etc. ;  but  always 
mentioned  you  with  a  great  deal  of  kindness  and  re 
spect.  He  said  the  Society  did  not  intend  to  maintain 
assistants  abroad,  and  that  the  sending  me  as  curate 
to  Mr.  Standard  would  be  a  bad  precedent  for  others 
to  ask  the  same  favors.  I  urged  the  infirmities  of  the 
old  Doctor,  and  the  miserable  condition  of  the  Church 
there  as  well  as  in  many  parts  of  the  County."  He 
was  assured  that  if  the  Society  thought  proper  to 
grant  the  request,  much  missionary  duty  would  be 
done  outside  of  the  parish. 

Mr.  Berriman  and  Dr.  Astry  received  him  cordially 
and  promised  him  all  the  assistance  in  their  power,  but 
both  regretted  that  he  and  Mr.  Samuel  Fayerweather,2 
who  arrived  in  London  a  week  after  Mr.  Johnson, 
"  were  come  upon  such  a  slender  basis."  Further  on 
in  this  same  letter,  he  says :  — 

1  Rev.  Wm.  Gibbs,  of  Simsbury,  Ct.,  then  in  poor  health. 

2  He  vras  a  native  of  Boston,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  College,  1743.    He  was 
for  several  years  settled  as  a  Congregational  minister  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  but  after 
conforming  to  the  Church  of  England,  and  receiving  Holy  Orders  therein,  he  was  ap 
pointed  a  missionary  in  South  Carolina.    The  climate  impaired  his  health,  and  peti 
tioning  the  Society  to  be  removed  North,  he  was  transferred  in  1760  to  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Narragansett,  vacant  by  the  death  of  Dr.  McSparran,  in  1757.      Mr.  Fayer 
weather  died  in  1781. 


214  LIFE    AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

Last  Tuesday,  with  Fayerweather,  waited  on  his  Lordship 
of  London  at  Fulham.  He  appeared  very  kind  ;  he  seemed 
desirous  to  converse  with  us,  but  it  was  very  difficult  to  un 
derstand  him  :  his  voice  is  almost  gone,  but  his  understanding 
yet  very  good.  He  spoke  at  first  pretty  roughly  to  Fayer 
weather,  and  said  his  bond  from  Taunton  people  was  good  for 
nothing  ;  they  meant  only  to  impose  upon  him.  He  had,  he 
said,  known  instances  of  it  from  other  places,  and  Taunton 
he  knew  never  intended  to  pay  what  they  promised  him.  At 
our  coining  away  he  asked  whether  I  should  write  soon,  and 
bid  me  give  his  services  to  you  and  tell  you  that  writing  was 
grown  very  difficult  to  him,  and  his  infirmities  such  that  he 
could  scarce  hold  a  pen  in  his  hand  to  write  his  name,  which 
was  the  reason  you  had  no  letter  from  him  for  some  time. 
He  then  told  us  we  must  wait  upon  Dr.  Nicholls  next 
week,  who  does  all  his  business  for  him,  and  thus  we  are 
referred  to  another  tribunal.  They  all  seem  to  agree  (and 
especially  the  Secretary)  that  Taunton  must  not  be  made 
a  mission.  Poor  Fayerweather  is  frighted  out  of  his  wits 
about  it.  However,  I  endeavor  to  encourage  him  to  hope 
that  all  things  will  turn  out  right  for  us  both,  by  and  by. 

The  good  Bishop  of  Oxford  I  have  waited  on  twice.  He 
truly  deserves  Pope's  character  —  Seeker  is  decent.  He  con 
verses  with  me  with  all  the  familiarity  of  an  intimate  friend, 
promises  to  write  for  me  to  Oxford,  and  hopes  a  degree  may 
be  obtained.  I  heard  him  preach  on  Christmas  Day  at  the 
Cathedral  (the  congregation  was  in  tears),  and  received  the 
Sacrament  at  his  hands.  There  is  to  be  a  meeting  of  the 
Society  next  Friday,  at  which  he  promises  to  attend,  and  I 
am  to  be  there  myself  and  urge  my  cause.  The  Committee 
meet  on  Monday  to  prepare  matters  ready.  Thus  you  see 
I  am  at  present  lying  at  the  pool,  and  waiting  for  the  mov 
ing  of  the  waters,  in  hopes  some  good  friend  will  then  take 
me  up  and  cast  me  in,  so  that  in  my  next  I  hope  I  shall  be 
able  to  give  you  a  more  agreeable  account  of  a  favorable 
turn  to  my  affairs.  Meantime  I  shall  endeavor  to  possess 
myself  in  patience  and  wait  the  event. 


OF    SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  215 

He  seized  every  opportunity  to  communicate  with 
his  father,  and  keep  him  informed  of  the  progress  of 
his  affairs.  He  knew  his  anxieties  about  him,  and 
would  do  what  he  could  to  quiet  them,  and  gladden 
the  hearts  of  all  his  friends  at  home.  His  letters,  in 
tended  for  the  family  eye,  do  not  fail  to  mention  any 
change  of  plan  or  new  proposition,  though  he  was  so 
far  away  that  it  must  be  carried  into  effect  before  he 
could  have  the  parental  advice.  He  left  himself  in 
the  hands  of  Providence  and  his  London  counselors, 
and  wrote  as  follows  to  his  father  :  — 

LONDON,  February  6,  1756. 

HONORED  SIR,  —  I  am  told  this  morning,  with  the  greatest 
secrecy,  of  an  opportunity  to  New  York,  but  who  it  is  that  is 
going,  I  know  not ;  however,  'tis  satisfaction  enough  for  me 
that  I  can  inform  you  with  what  pleasure  I  received  yours 
by  the  Grrace  via  Bristol.  There  is  no  happiness  here  equal 
to  that  of  hearing  that  you  all  continue  well,  as  blessed  be 
God,  I  am  at  present.  You  mention  in  this  letter  that  you 
had  wrote  a  few  days  before,  I  suppose  by  the  Albany,  but 
she  is  not  yet  arrived,  and  we  begin  to  be  anxious  for  fear 
the  French  have  got  her.  I  am  sorry  to  hear  of  Mr.  Col- 
gan's  death ;  neither  do  I  know  what  to  say  about  succeed 
ing  there.1  I  have  just  mentioned  it  to  Dr.  Nicholls  and 
Dr.  Astry,  and  they  both  seemed  rather  to  discourage  me 
from  thinking  of  it,  as  there  must  be  a  lawsuit,  and  perhaps 
a  good  deal  of  trouble  to  get  things  quietly  settled  ;  how 
ever,  if  I  should  hear  nothing  further  from  you  about  it,  I 
shall  endeavor  to  get  leave  of  the  Society  to  succeed  there, 
if  they  should  choose  me  upon  my  return,  and  all  things  con 
sidered,  it  be  thought  most  advisable. 

I  wrote  you  a  long  letter  by  the  General  Wall  Paquet 
for  New  York,  which  hope  you  will  receive.  Since  that  I 
have  waited  on  his  Grace  of  Canterbury,  who  received  me  in 

1  Jamaica,  L.  I. 


216  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

a  very  familiar  manner  and  inquired  much  about  the  College 
at  New  York,  and  the  affairs  of  religion  there.  I  was  sur 
prised  to  find  by  him  that  he  had  never  yet  seen  a  charter, 
or  received  any  proper  account  of  his  being  a  Governor  of 
the  College.  I  suppose  it  was  left  with  our  late  Governor, 
De  Lancey,  to  write  and  send  a  charter  to  him,  but  you 
know  his  indolence,  and  therefore  'tis  not  strange  it  never 
was  done. 

As  to  my  own  affairs,  I  can  inform  you  nothing  certain.  I 
have  waited  upon  the  Committee  at  the  Charter  House,  and 
afterwards  was  introduced  to  the  Venerable  Board  at  Abp. 
Tenison's  Library.  His  Grace  of  York  sat  in  the  chair.  On 
his  right  hand,  the  Bp.  of  Oxford,  and  three  other  Bishops. 
On  his  left,  a  very  grand  assembly  !  Your  letters  were  read, 
and  that  from  the  Vestry,  publicly  before  the  Board  ;  Mr. 
Harison  was  asked  by  the  Bp.  of  Oxford  to  be  present,  and 
accordingly  when  we  were  introduced,  we  were  questioned 
by  his  Grace  and  the  Bp.  of  Oxford  publicly  about  the  Col 
lege  and  the  opposition  it  had  met,  and  was  like  to  meet  with 
from  the  Dissenters,  etc.,  to  all  which  we  answered  in  the 
best  manner  we  could.  I  was  then  desired  by  Dr.  Bear- 
croft  to  tell  his  Grace  and  the  Bishops  the  story  of  our 
persecutions  at  Yale  College,  and  in  particular  that  of  our 
going  to  hear  Mr.  Morris  preach  in  the  jail  at  New  Haven 
(which  I  had  told  the  Committee  before)  ;  and  they  all 
heard  it  with  much  attention,  and  seemed  disposed  to  patron 
ize  the  College  at  New  York.  Mr.  Harison,  by  your  letters 
and  Dr.  Astry's  recommendation,  was  mentioned  at  the 
Board  for  a  member  of  the  Society.  I  have  myself  taken  a 
good  deal  of  pains  among  the  members,  to  have  him  made 
one,  and  Dr.  Nicholls  assures  me  it  will  be  done  at  the  next 
meeting.  Mr.  Fayerweather  and  myself  are  recommended 
by  the  Society  to  the  Bp.  of  London  for  orders,  and  have 
leave  afterwards  to  apply  to  them  for  their  favor,  which  I 
suppose  will  be  near  ,£20  for  me,  an  annual  present,  but  not 
a  settled  salary  as  Dr.  Nicholls  thinks.  Mr.  Fayerweather 
I  know  not  how  they  will  dispose  of,  perhaps  to  Norwalk, 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  217 

for  the  Secretary  tells  me  they  must  dismiss  poor  Fowle. 
I  expect  Dr.  Nicholls  will  examine  us  next  week,  and  we 
shall  be  ordained  (if  found  worthy)  in  the  Ember  Week  in 
March.  'Tis  this  day  the  general  Fast,  and  I  had  engaged 
myself  to  wait  on  some  company  to  Westminster  Abbey  to 
hear  the  sermon  before  the  House  of  Lords,  before  I  knew 
of  the  opportunity  for  writing. 

I  trust  in  God  for  his  protection  and  blessing  upon  us  all, 
and  hope  we  shall  have  a  happy  meeting  again.  Meantime, 
I  remain,  Honored  Sir, 

Your  most  dutiful  and  obedient  son, 

W.  JOHNSON. 

The  examination  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  letter 
was  held,  and  he  wrote  his  father  on  the  19th  of 
March,  to  inform  him  that  he  and  Mr.  Fayerweather 
and  several  other  candidates  were  ordained  Deacons 
the  previous  Sunday  by  the  Bishop  of  Bangor,  Dr. 
Pierce,  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Palace  at  Fulham,  —  Dr. 
Sherlock,  the  Bishop  of  London,  being  too  infirm  to 
go  through  the  ordination.  Dr.  Nicholls,  Master  of 
the  Temple,  presented  them,  and  "  after  the  service," 
he  added,  "  we  had  a  very  grand  and  elegant  dinner 
served  up.  The  Bishop  of  London's  lady,  my  Lord 
of  Bangor,  Dr.  Nicholls,  etc.,  sat  at  the  table  with  us. 
The  particular  notice  with  which  I  was  treated  above 
the  rest  of  my  fellow-candidates  had  almost  put  me 
to  the  blush  several  times.  My  Lord  of  London  de 
sired  to  be  affectionately  remembered  to  you.  He 
expresses  a  very  great  regard  for  you,  and  on  your 
account  treats  me  with  the  greatest  kindness,  and  in 
tends  (as  I  am  told  by  Dr.  Nicholls),  as  soon  as  ever 
he  can  hear  from  Boston  whether  or  not  Dr.  Mc- 
Sparran  accepts  the  Chaplaincy,  which  Mr.  Brockwell 


218  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

held,  to  give  me  the  refusal  of  it,  as  he  does  not  much 
expect  the  Dr.  will  think  best  to  have  it.  If  it  should 
be  offered  me  I  shall  be  at  a  loss  how  to  act,  as  I  shall 
be  unwilling  to  refuse,  and  unworthy  to  accept  it." 

He  wrote  again  on  the  31st,  and  said  :  "I  have 
now  the  satisfaction  to  acquaint  you  that  Mr.  Fayer- 
weather,  myself,  and  two  others  were  ordained  Priests 
on  Lady  Day,  at  the  Bishop  of  London's  palace 
again,  by  the  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  Dr.  Osbaldistone." 
Three  days  later  he  had  another  opportunity  to  write 
his  father,  when  he  mentioned  :  "I  forgot  in  my 
last  to  tell  you  that  my  good  friend,  Mr.  Cutler,  had 
been  in  London  almost  a  week,  and  took  much  no 
tice  of  me.  He  came  from  Bocking,  forty  miles,  al 
most  on  purpose  to  see  us,  and  would  have  me  with 
him  every  day,  and  visit  all  his  friends  with  him  here 
in  London.  He  is  hearty  and  lusty,  a  very  true  pic 
ture  of  his  father ;  only  more  merry.  When  he  went 
away  he  made  me  and  Mr.  Fayerweather  promise  to 
preach  for  him  at  Bocking  in  our  journey  to  Cam 
bridge.  He  particularly  desired  to  be  affectionately 
remembered  to  you,  but  says  he  believes  he  shall 
never  be  tempted  to  see  America  again." 

Young  Johnson  still  tarried  in  London,  and  had  not 
left  its  precincts  since  his  arrival,  to  visit  other  parts 
of  the  kingdom.  He  preached  with  good  acceptance 
in  several  churches  of  the  metropolis,  and  then  com 
municated  to  his  brother  his  final  plans  in  the  fol 
lowing  letter.  His  ordination  had  not  fixed  his  post 
in  America,  and  the  hesitancy  or  uncertainty  about 
this  occasioned  him  some  anxiety  :  — 

DEAR  BROTHER,  —  I  have  yet  received  but  one  letter 
from  you  and  that  above  a  month  ago,  to  which  I  gave  you 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  219 

an  answer  by  Captain  Jacobson,  in  the  Irene,  by  whom  also 
I  sent  you  a  box  of  books,  marked  W.  S.  J.,  No.  2,  which  I 
hope  will  come  safe  to  you.  I  have  still  the  pleasure  of  ac 
quainting  you  of  the  continuation  of  my  health  (blessed  be 
God),  as  I  hope  you  all  have ;  but  am  quite  weary  of  the  smoke 
of  London,  which  I  propose  on  Friday  next  to  change  for 
that  of  Windsor,  and  Oxford,  where  I  was  about  ten  days 
since  honored  with  a  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  through 
my  intercession  with  the  good  Bishop  of  Oxford,  had  Mr. 
Fayerweather  joined  with  me,  so  that  we  have  been  now 
sounding  in  the  newspapers  almost  a  week,  till  I  am  quite, 
weary  of  the  compliments.  Messrs.  Harison  and  Fayer 
weather  will  accompany  me  to  the  University  where  we  pro 
pose  to  spend  about  eight  days,  and  then  go  to  Cambridge 
and  Booking  to  see  Mr.  Cutler,  etc.  After  which  I  shall 
return  to  London  again,  and  begin  to  settle  my  affairs  here 
that  I  may  turn  my  attention  to  America  again,  and  the 
pleasing  hopes  of  seeing  you  in  health  and  peace  once  more. 

I  don't  know  whether  I  told  you  that  my  Lord  of  London 
designs  me  the  Chaplaincy  at  Boston,  if  Dr.  McSparran  re 
fuses  it,  as  'tis  expected  he  will;  his  own  being  better,  and 
the  Bishop  won't  let  him  hold  both  as  the  Dr.  intended,  and 
my  Lord  is  now  waiting  his  answer  that  he  may  give  it  to 
me,  so  that  I  am,  at  present,  in  a  quandary  whether  Boston, 
West  Chester,  or  Jamaica,  will  finally  be  my  place  of  abode, 
though  I  can't  but  rather  wish  one  of  the  latter,  and  that  I 
may  be  the  nearer  to  Daddy  in  his  decline  of  life,  as  well  as 
to  you,  though  Boston  be  in  itself  the  most  eligible  other 
wise,  as  well  as  most  honorable. 

Be  so  good  as  to  make  my  compliments  to  Mr.  Winslow, 
and  tell  him  his  acquaintances  here  are  well,  particularly  Mr. 
Brornfield  and  Jackson.  I  have  had  several  agreeable  little 
rides  with  Mr.  Jackson  into  the  country  about  London,  as 
Mr.  Winslow  can  tell  you  he  did  before  me.  He  dislikes 
the  grounds  and  rudiments  of  law,  etc.,  that  you  mentioned, 
but  advises  me  to  get  you  Peere  Williams'  Reports,  a  cele 
brated  thing,  just  published,  in  3  vols.  folio,  price  £4  10s 


220  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

But  as  it  is  so  costly  I  am  a  little  at  a  loss  what  to  do.  Mr. 
Jackson  offers  to  do  you  any  little  service  that  shall  come  in 
his  way,  and  is  obliged  to  you  for  the  little  memorandum  you 
gave  me  about  his  land,  which  I  showed  to  him.  His  Grace 
of  Canterbury  has  been  very  ill,  so  that  his  life  has  been  de 
spaired  of,  but  is  now  better,  though  'tis  thought  he  will  not 
live  long,  as  he  is  imagined  to  be  in  a  consumption.  I  am  to 
morrow  to  attend  at  the  grand  rehearsal  for  the  Sons  of  the 
Clergy  at  St.  Paul's,  and  after  sermon  to  be  at  the  great  feast 
with  the  stewards,  gentry,  etc.  I  have  nothing  particular  to 
inform  you  as  to  public  affairs.  "Pis  neither  peace  nor  war 
here  ;  our  eyes  are  fixed  upon  America,  and  I  hope  you  will 
do  worthily.  I  shall  add  no  more,  but  my  most  affectionate 
love  to  sister,  and  hearty  service  to  all  friends  as  though 
named,  and  that 

I  am  your  most  affectionate  brother  and  friend, 

W.  JOHNSON. 

LONDON,  May  5,  1756. 

A  letter  to  his  father,  twenty  days  later,  describing 
the  reception  at  Oxford,  was  the  last  which  he  wrote 
to  his  friends  in  America.  The  journey  to  see  Mr. 
Cutler  at  Bocking  does  not  appear  to  have  been  made, 
for  the  visit  to  Cambridge  was  cut  short  by  his  illness 
and  speedy  return  to  London.  What  happened  to  him 
after  this  is  best  detailed  in  the  following  pathetic 
letter,  conveying  the  tidings  of  his  death :  — 

LONDON,  June  24,  1756. 

DEAR  AND  EVER  HONORED  SIR,  —  The  occasion  of  my 
writing  to  you  is  melancholy  and  distressing.  But  O  how 
can  I  speak  it  —  my  heart  is  pained  within  me,  my  spirit  is 
troubled  for  you.  The  sovereign  God  has  made  a  great 
breach  in  your  family.  Your  beloved  son  William  is  dead  — 
is  dead. 

It  pleased  God,  after  a  short  illness  of  about  nine  days 
with  the  small-pox,  to  take  him  out  of  this  world.  The  task 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  22] 

in  sending  such  a  letter  of  condolence  to  one  of  the  best  and 
tenderest  of  parents  is  exceeding  irksome  and  disagreeable  to 
me.  But  the  duty  I  owe  to  Doctor  Johnson,  as  well  as  the 
particular  regard  I  had  for  his  amiable  son,  will  not  allow  me 
to  refrain.  And  while  I  thus  drop  a  tear  with  you  over  my 
departed  friend,  wouldn't  be  forgetful  of  what  Christianity 
forbids,  "  to  mourn  as  those  who  are  without  hope." 

And  though  you,  Rev.  Sir,  may  say  in  the  midst  of  your 
distress  and  sorrow,  — "  O  William,  my  son,  that  I  had 
died  for  thee — William,  my  son,  my  son,"  yet  you  have 
all  the  reason  imaginable  to  be  greatly  comforted  in  his  death, 
and  even  to  rejoice  because  he  is  gone  to  his  heavenly  Father. 
Certain  I  am  that  you  will  be  better  able  to  make  suita 
ble  reflections  on  such  a  providence,  and  improve  it  to  your 
soul's  comfort  through  the  gracious  assistance  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  than  I  can  direct  to.  However,  as  it  may  be  some 
satisfaction  to  you  to  know  the  particulars  of  his  death,  I 
will  just  put  down  some  of  the  circumstances  of  it. 

Your  son  and  I  who  were  as  one,  united  in  the  bonds  of 
natural  love  and  affection,  and  engaged  in  one  and  the  same 
cause,  were  as  often  together  as  our  circumstances  would  allow 
of  (which  was  almost  every  day).  And  as  we  had  one  in 
terest  to  serve,  and  recommended  to  the  same  gentlemen, 
we  in  all  respects  fared  alike,  and  had  the  same  honors  to  be 
unitedly  thankful  for.  This  leads  me  to  observe  that  your 
letters  (and  Doctor  Cutler's  which  I  procured  in  behalf  of 
us  both)  to  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  introduced  us  to  his  ac 
quaintance,  and  our  conduct  recommended  us  still  more  to 
his  esteem  and  notice.  That  worthy  gentleman,  who  was  in 
defatigable  to  serve  us,  went  down  to  Oxford  and  procured, 
after  making  all  the  interest  he  could,  a  degree  of  Master  of 
Arts,  which  was  conferred  on  us  by  Diploma  in  the  fullest 
convocation  ever  known  before,  and  the  more  honorary  this 
was,  being  done  when  we  were  not  present  ourselves.  His 
Lordship,  upon  his  return  to  London,  advised  us  in  conse 
quence  of  so  high  an  honor  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  University, 
which  we  did,  and  were  there  received  with  all  the  demonstra- 


222  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

tions  of  joy  and  respect  possible  by  the  Vice-chancellor  and  the 
other  governors  of  it,  with  whom  we  staid  a  fortnight,  with 
the  most  inexpressible  pleasure  and  delight,  —  the  Vice- 
chancellor  himself  presenting  to  each  of  us  his  Diploma  in 
the  handsomest  form  and  order. 

In  about  a  month  after,  we  agreed  to  visit  the  University 
of  Cambridge  also,  where  we  were  admitted  ad  eundem,  and 
previous  to  it  we  passed  through  all  the  forms  and  ceremo 
nies  of  it.  And  there  we  were  likewise  treated  with  uncom 
mon  civility  and  kindness  by  the  Vice-chancellor,  Profess 
ors,  Doctors,  Proctors,  etc.  We  spent  four  days  at  this  seat 
of  the  Muses,  and  came  back  to  London,  but  with  this  dis 
agreeable  circumstance  of  my  brother  traveller  being  sick 
of  that  fatal  distemper  whereof  he  died.  Where  he  took  the 
infection,  or  by  what  particular  means,  I  cannot  trace  out, 
but  very  well  remember  his  first  complaints  were  in  Trin 
ity  Hall,  Cant. ;  though  some  say  he  was  out  of  order  by 
overheating  his  blood,  and  worrying  himself  by  excessive 
walking  in  bad  weather  the  day  before  we  sat  out  upon  our 
journey. 

As  soon  as  he  got  back  to  his  lodgings  from  this  unfortunate 
tour,  a  surgeon  of  eminence  —  Mr.  Kinnersly  —  bled  him, 
which  was  on  Saturday  evening  about  eight  o'clock,  June  the 
12th.  The  next  day,  which  was  Sunday,  a  physician  and 
an  apothecary  of  the  first  rank  and  character  —  Doctor 
Hyberton  and  Charming  —  were  sent  for,  who  immediately 
pronounced  his  case  dangerous,  he  having  the  worst  of  symp 
toms,  and  those  of  the  confluent  sort.  On  the  Friday  follow 
ing,  growing  worse,  the  help  of  another  physician  was  found 
necessary,  and  accordingly,  by  the  advice  and  desire  of  good 
Mr.  Berriman,  Doctor  Nichols,  a  gentleman  of  great  renown 
and  formerly  of  your  acquaintance,  was  applied  to,  and  the 
three  consulted  together,  and  did  everything  for  dear  Billy 
that  they  possibly  could  do.  This  I  was  an  eye-witness  to,  as 
I  took  lodgings  in  the  house  where  he  was  from  his  first  being 
put  to  bed,  and  constantly  staid  with  him  (at  his  desire), 
and  the  rather  as  Mr.  Harison  was  gone  into  Wales  and 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  223 

Ireland.  He  had  also  a  careful  nurse  and  the  best  of  friends 
about  him  to  keep  up  his  spirits.  The  Revd.  minister  above 
mentioned  was  exceeding  kind  in  praying  with  him.  I  like 
wise  prayed  with  him  at  several  different  times,  for  which  he 
always  expressed  his  most  humble  and  hearty  thanks. 

In  the  whole  course  of  his  sickness  as  he  had  the  exercise 
of  his  reason  and  understanding,  so  I  observed  him  full  of 
devotion.  And  when  any  prayers  were  offered  up  in  his 
behalf,  his  attention  was  fixed  to  every  sentence  and  period. 
On  Sunday,  the  20th  of  June,  about  two  hours  before  he  died, 
[he]  begged  of  me  to  pray  with  him  before  I  went  out  to 
church  (for  then  I  was  just  going  to  preach  for  the  Rev. 
Doctor  Bristowe),  which  I  readily  complied  with,  and  couldn't 
help  remarking  his  particular  emphasis  on  the  concluding 
word,  Amen.  This  he  would  speak  out  distinctly,  and  au 
dibly,  with  his  innocent  hands  lifted  up  to  the  God  of  Heaven 
when  he  could  scarcely  be  heard  to  say  anything  else. 

As  I  sat  by  his  bed-side  observing  him  to  breathe  hard, 
I  asked  him  "  whether  he  thought  himself  dangerous,  — 
whether  he  thought  he  should  die,"  to  which  he  answered, 
"  I  know  not ;  I  cannot  tell."  I  asked,  "  whether  he  was 
anything  uneasy  about  a  future  state."  His  answer  was  "  Not, 
no,  not  in  the  least."  To  which  he  further  added,  "  If  it  be 
the  will  of  God  that  I  may  live  to  see  my  dear  father  again, 
I  shall  be  thankful ;  if  not,  his  will  be  done.  I  can,  I  do  en 
tirely  resign  myself  to  the  blessed  will  of  my  Creator  to  dis 
pose  of  me  as  He  thinks  best." 

This,  this  was  his  language,  and  I  may  say  too,  the  song  of 
his  soul.  Towards  the  close  of  his  precious  life,  he  had  one  or 
two  considerable  struggles  and  conflicts,  yet  still  meek,  si 
lent,  patient,  resigned,  — 

"And  smiling  pleased  in  Death." 

Death  was  no  surprise  to  him  in  the  least ;  being  disarmed 
of  its  stings  and  horrors,  he  bid  it  welcome,  breathing  out  his 
last  in  the  hands  of  Jesus.     May  the  dear  parents   be  pre 
pared  to  hear  the  tidings,  and  supported  under  so  sore  a  be 
reavement. 


224  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

Ah  me  !  my  companion  and  friend !  very  pleasant  hast  thou 
been  unto  me  in  thy  life-time,  and  now  at  death  not  divided. 
O  Lord  make  me  to  know  mine  end  and  the  measure  of  my 
days  what  it  is,  that  I  may  know  how  frail  I  am. 

Quistalia  fando  temperet  alachryrais  ? 

And  after  all,  the  greatest  comfort,  Rev.  and  Hon.  Sir,  to  you 
is,  that  your  beloved  son  only  sleepeth  ;  that  you  shall  see  him 
again  risen  with  a  more  beautified  body,  like  unto  his  Saviour's, 
and  distinguished  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  —  a  crown  — 
a  laurel.  The  young  prophet  hath  ascended  ;  may  I  in  par 
ticular  catch  his  mantle,  his  spirit  descending  and  resting 
upon  me.  To  conclude,  may  both  Mr.  Harison,  who  was  your 
worthy  son's  intimate  friend,  and  I,  imitate  him  as  he  imi 
tated  Christ,  and  follow  him  who  through  faith  and  patience 
is  now  inheriting  the  promises.  Then  shall  we  be  together 
with  him  as  one,  where  there  will  be  no  parting  any  more  in 
the  beatific  presence,  and  ever  rejoice  in  shouting  forth  the 
praises  of  God  and  the  Lamb.  Even  so,  come,  Lord  Jesus. 

I  most  heartily  sympathize  with  you,  venerable  and  much 
afflicted  Sir,  and  the  whole  distressed  family,  and  wish  you 
and  them  the  great  consolations  which  are  contained  in  the 
covenant  of  grace,  and  promised  to  good  men  under  Divine 
chastisement. 

I  am,  believe  me  to  be,  with  the  utmost  sincerity, 
Your  very  affectionate  sympathizing  friend, 

SAMUEL  FAYERWEATHER. 

He  was  carried  on  Thursday  the  25th  of  June  into 
the  Church  of  St.  Mildred  in  the  Poultry,  and,  after 
the  usual  funeral  rites,  was  laid  in  a  vault,  under 
the  Church,  belonging  to  Mr.  Morley,  a  near  relation 
of  Mr.  Harison.  A  handsome  marble  monument  was 
afterwards  erected  to  his  precious  memory  at  the  ex 
pense  of  his  most  loving  brother. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  225 


CHAPTER  IX. 

GBIEF  FOR  THE  DEATH  OP  HIS  SON  AND  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH 
FRIENDS  ;  PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLLEGE  AND  ERECTION  OF  A 
BUILDING;  LEAVES  THE  CITY  ON  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  SMALL 
POX;  DEATH  OF  HIS  WIFE  ;  FIRST  COMMENCEMENT;  AND  IN 
CLINATIONS  TO  RESIGN. 

A.  D.  1756-1759. 

IT  is  impossible  to  describe  the  sorrow  of  the  father 
at  the  loss  of  his  son.  He  had  written  to  his  friends 
in  Stratford  as  late  as  the  first  week  in  September,  to 
say  that  no  new  intelligence  had  been  received  from 
him,  and  that  he  hoped  by  that  time  he  was  "  well 
on  his  way  over/'  The  first  tidings  of  his  death 
came  through  a  London  paper,  and  followed  quickly 
upon  the  hope  thus  expressed.  He  seized  his  pen 
and  wrote  again  as  follows :  — 

September  13,  1756. 

DEAREST  SON,  —  You  will  find  by  an  article  in  the  news 
which  is  out  of  the  London  paper,  that  it  hath  pleased  our 
Heavenly  Father  to  take  to  himself  your  dear  brother,  and 
to  deprive  me  of  one  of  the  best  of  sons  and  you  of  the  best 
of  brothers.  May  He  support  and  comfort  you  under  these 
heavy  tidings,  as  I  hope  I  may  say  with  thankfulness  He  does 
us.  The  wound  is  exceeding  deep,  but  we  have  nothing  to 
say  upon  these  occasions  but  Thy  will  be  done  !  and  to  make 
the  best  use  we  can  of  it  to  disengage  us  from  this  world,  and 
fit  us  for  a  better  where  he  is  doubtless  gone,  and  where  we 
may  hope  in  a  little  time  to  meet  him  never  to  part  more. 
This  is  all  the  intelligence  we  have  of  it  (via  Boston),  but 

15 


226  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

you  see  him  in  the  case  so  exactly  described  that  there 
is  no  possible  place  left  to  doubt  of  it.  Your  sister  is  at 
Staten  Island.  I  dread  at  the  shock  it  must  give  her. 
Thank  God  we  are  all  in  health  and  send  our  tender  sym 
pathies  with  you  on  this  melancholy  occasion.  This  makes 
us  the  more  long  to  see  you  again,  but  must  wait  till  your 
affairs  make  it  practicable.  Meantime  may  God  sanctify 
this  sad  event  to  you  and  to  us  all,  and  ever  have  you  under 
his  most  gracious  protection.  I  am,  dear  pon, 

Your  most  afflicted  and  affectionate  father, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

Several  letters  passed  between  them  before  the 
tidings  were  confirmed  by  Mr.  Fayerweather's  com 
munication,  —  in  one  of  which  Dr.  Johnson  said  : 
"  Dear  son,  you  are  now  my  all ;  pray  for  my  sake  as 
well  as  your  own  be  very  careful  of  your  health.  I 
have  always  a  sort  of  terror  at  the  sound  of  Litch  field 
ever  since  the  sickness  you  got  there.  I  shall  long 
to  hear  you  are  well  returned."  Another  letter, 
written  after  all  the  particulars  of  William's  death 
had  been  received,  is  so  full  of  parental  tenderness 
and  solicitude  for  his  surviving  child  that  it  must  not 
be  omitted  in  this  connection  :  — 

NEW  YORK,  October  18,  1756. 

MY  DEAR  AND  ONLY  SON,  —  I  had  yours  of  the  12th  and 
thank  God  for  your  health  and  ours.  I  conclude  you  had 
my  last  by  the  post  with  Mr.  Fayerweather's,  though  I  have 
no  answer  by  Hurd. 

Your  kind  intentions  towards  your  brother,  had  he  lived, 
are  very  pleasing  to  me.  You  may  remember  I  once 
wished  you  to  assist  him,  as  I  was  concerned  how  he  would 
be  able  to  get  decently  along  in  life.  But  God,  I  am  per 
suaded,  has  provided  infinitely  better  for  him  than  we  both 
of  us  could  have  done,  and  yet  it  is  so  difficult  a  thing  to  be 
disengaged  from  the  hopes  and  wishes  we  had  of  happiness 


OF  SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  227 

in  his  continuance  with  us,  that  I  believe  we  would  both  be 
content  to  be  stripped  of  all  we  have,  if  that  could  fetch  him 
back.  But  God's  will  is  done,  and  to  that  we  must  submit. 

What  you  mention  of  his  taking  away  such  young  persons, 
and  especially  in  prospect  of  great  usefulness,  always  ap 
peared  to  me  one  of  the  most  difficult  phenomena  of  Provi 
dence  to  account  for.  It  did  so,  on  his  taking  away  my 
dear  friend,  Mr.  Brown,  who  was  certainly  the  best  of  us 
three,  and  much  such  another  as  your  brother.  What  you 
suggest  is  the  only  thing  that  can  satisfy  us  that  there  are 
wise  and  good  reasons  with  that  infinitely  perfect  and  best  of 
Beings,  though  it  is  infinitely  beyond  us  to  see  them.  It  is 
impossible  for  vis  to  judge  what  is  wisest  and  best,  unless  we 
knew  the  whole  of  things.  But  He  hath  kept  that  future 
world  impenetrably  out  of  our  sight,  doubtless  (wisely  and 
kindly)  to  teach  us  to  live  by  faith,  not  by  sight.  A  heathen 
would  say,  Prudens,  futuri  temporis  exitum,  calignosa  node 
premit  Deus.  It  is  certain  we  can  make  nothing  of  Provi 
dence  without  taking  both  worlds  into  the  account ;  and  in 
this  view  let  us  rest. 

Mr.  Walker  was  so  kind  as  to  write  me  a  large  and  elab 
orate  letter  on  this  melancholy  occasion,  to  which  I  inclose 
an  answer  open  for  your  perusal,  which  I  desire  you  to  seal 
and  deliver  to  him.  I  am  very  sorry  you  can't  be  here  at 
Christmas.  After  having  had  two  such  desirable  sons  for 
near  thirty  years  almost  always  under  my  eye,  now  to  be  to 
tally  deprived  of  one,  and  so  very  seldom  to  see  the  other, 
seems  very  hard.  I  shall  be  so  out  of  all  patience  not  to  see 
you  till  spring  that  I  beg  of  you,  if  possible,  to  let  us  see  you 
in  that  first  week  in  December  you  mention. 

My  dear  son  —  This  is  your  birthday ;  *  you  now  enter 
upon  your  thirtieth  year.  I  bless  God  for  preserving  you 
both  so  long  to  me  as  He  has.  May  He  preserve  you  still, 
and  lengthen  out  to  you  a  useful  life  to  a  good  old  age,  and 
bestow  ten  thousand  blessings  on  you  and  yours.  And  as  I 
always  set  my  heart  upon  your  being,  both,  great  and  public 

1  He  was  born  on  the  7th  of  October,  Old  Style. 


228  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

blessings  to  mankind,  and  now  one  is  taken  away,  and  some 
part  of  your  private  care  is  thereby  abated,  I  trust  you  will 
be  so  much  the  more  of  a  public  spirit,  and  lay  out  your  life 
and  talents  to  the  best  advantage  for  public  usefulness,  and 
that,  as  much  as  you  can,  in  what  relates  to  the  interest  of 
Religion  as  well  as  Justice.  I  am,  with  our  tenderest  re 
gards  to  you  both,  and  to  the  children,  dear  son, 

Your  most  affectionate  father, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

His  friends  in  England  wrote  him  all  the  comfort 
ing  words  they  could,  and  at  the  University  of  Oxford 
a  memorial  of  the  character  of  his  son  was  drawn  up, 
in  which  the  Rev.  George  Home,  of  Magdalen  Col 
lege,  and  the  Rev.  George  Berkeley,  student  of 
Christ  Church,  had  a  share,  and  in  which  the  hope 
was  expressed  that  the  guardians  of  the  Church  in 
America  might  find  some  expedient  to  "  prevent  fu 
ture  calamities  of  this  kind,  by  rendering  such  long 
and  perilous  voyages  unnecessary."  Dr.  Johnson 
used  the  event  as  a  fresh  reason  for  the  establish 
ment  of  an  American  Episcopate.  In  writing  to  Dr. 
Nicholls,  December  10,  1756,  and  thanking  him  for 
his  kindness  to  his  deceased  son,  he  urged  this  meas 
ure  with  great  zeal,  but  despaired  of  seeing  anything 
accomplished  at  present.  He  wrote  in  a  similar  strain 
to  his  other  correspondents,  and  appeared  to  be  as  full 
of  solicitude  for  the  prosperity  of  the  Church  in  Amer 
ica  as  of  sorrow  for  the  death  of  his  beloved  child. 
The  following  letter  to  the  son  of  Bp.  Berkeley  may 
be  taken  as  an  example  of  the  depth  of  his  feeling  on 
both  subjects :  — 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  229 


KING'S  COLLEGE,  N.  Y.,  December  10,  1756. 

DEAKEST  Sin,  —  I  have  now  before  me  three  of  your  very 
kind  and  affectionate  letters  to  acknowledge,  which  I  most 
gratefully  do.  In  particular  I  thank  you  for  the  very  tender 
sympathy  you  express  on  occasion  of  the  loss  of  my  dear  son, 
which  is  indeed  a  very  heavy  loss  not  only  to  me  and  my 
family,  but  to  the  poor  people  to  whom  he  was  to  minister, 
and  hath  been  most  affectionately  lamented  by  all  who  knew 
him.  Your  reflections  on  this  unhappy  occasion  are  both 
just  and  kind,  and  I  thank  God,  under  such  considerations, 
He  has  enabled  me  to  bear  it  better  than  I  could  have  ex 
pected.  And  however  hard  it  bears  on  flesh  and  blood,  as  I 
am  deeply  sensible  that  my  Heavenly  Father  both  always 
knows  and  does  what  is  best,  I  heartily  join  with  you  in  say 
ing,  Not  my  will,  O  my  God,  but  Thine  be  done  !  And  I 
gladly  take  this  opportunity  to  render  my  most  hearty  thanks 
to  you  for  the  great  kindness  wherewith  you  treated  my  dear 
son,  when  he  was  at  Oxford,  and  I  beg  you  will  give  my 
humblest  service  and  thanks  to .  all  those  good  gentlemen,  as 
though  named,  into  whose  conversation  you  introduced  him, 
and  who  treated  him  with  so  great  kindness,  and  indeed  to 
the  whole  Senate  for  the  great  honor  they  did  him  in  his  de 
gree,  of  all  which  he  had  a  most  pleasing  and  grateful  sense, 
as  abundantly  appears  both  from  his  journal,  and  a  letter 
he  wrote  to  me  from  London  soon  after.  His  satisfaction 
in  his  journey  to  Oxford  was  inexpressible,  and  particularly 
I  beg  you  will  give  my  humblest  duty  and  thanks  (lest  my 
letter  should  miscarry)  to  my  Lord  of  Oxford,  whose  treat 
ment  of  him  was  like  that  of  a  father  and  friend,  rather  than 
a  stranger  and  inferior,  —  for  which  I  cannot  be  sufficiently 
thankful. 

I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  sending  me  a  copy  of 
your  justly  renowned  and  ever  honored  father's  epitaph,  for 
whom  I  had  the  most  intense  affection.  It  is  extremely  just 
and  elegant.  It  was  a  mighty  satisfaction  that  our  friend 
ship  was  like  to  be  continued  in  our  sons  ;  but  since  God  has 


230  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

been  pleased  to  deny  it  in  him  that  is  gone,  I  wish  it  may 
be  continued  in  my  only  surviving  son,  who  though  he  is  a 
lawyer,  and  (thank  God)  is  in  the  best  estimation  in  that 
profession,  yet  his  chief  affection  is  towards  Divinity  of  the 
best  sort,  having  read  Hutchinson,  etc.,  and  would  shine  in 
that  if  he  could  have  orders  without  such  a  dangerous  voy 
age,  which  yet  he  would  not  much  regard,  if  he  had  not  a 
family.  I  beg,  therefore,  though  unknown,  he  may  be  num 
bered  among  your  friends.  I  desire,  when  you  write,  you 
will  give  my  humblest  service  to  that  excellent  lady  your  hon 
ored  mother,  as  well  as  your  brother,  of  whom  I  should  be 
glad  to  hear,  and  assure  her  that  I  do  most  tenderly  sympa 
thize  with  her  in  her  affliction,  and  do  earnestly  pray  to  God 
for  the  relief  of  your  dear  sister.  I  bless  God  who  has  in 
fused  your  heart  with  a  disposition  to  take  Holy  Orders  in 
this  degenerate,  apostatizing  age,  in  which  a  man  had  need  to 
have  the  spirit  of  a  confessor  if  not  a  martyr,  and  I  shall  not 
cease  to  pray  earnestly  that  you  may  both  have  the  grace  and 
opportunity  to  act  a  worthy  part  in  that  capacity  for  which 
you  are  so  excellently  qualified. 

And  now  it  is  time  that  I  consider  the  subjects  of  your 
other  letters,  and  particularly  that  I  tender  you  my  most 
hearty  thanks  for  the  most  kind  present  of  books  you  were 
so  good  as  to  send  me,  which  I  wish  I  could  retaliate.  I 
should  have  done  this  sooner  but  that  they  arrived  not  long 
before  the  sad  news  of  my  son's  death,  having  lain  so  long 
with  the  Secretary  that  he  had  forgotten  whence  they  were. 
Dr.  Ellis'  performance  I  am  highly  pleased  with,  so  far  as 
Religion  is  concerned,  but  I  cannot  say  that  I  am  satisfied 
with  either  Mr.  Locke  or  him  in  that  part.  I  cannot  think 
sense  the  only  source  of  our  knowledge,  and  must  conceive 
consciousness  and  the  pure  intellect  another,  without  which 
instruction  could  take  no  effect,  though  it  labor  in  the  first 
materials.  Bp.  Berkeley,  Dr.  Cudworth,  and  Plato,  should 
be  well  considered.  I  desire  you  would  give  my  humble  ser 
vice  and  thanks  to  Mr.  Holloway  for  his  kind  present,  which 
is  an  excellent  performance,  but  I  am  afraid  of  going  out 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  231 

of  one  extreme  into  another,  and  so  hurting  the  cause  of  our 
holy  religion  by  carrying  the  humor  of  allegorizing  too  far, 
as  some  of  the  pious  Fathers  seem  to  have  done  ;  and  I  have 
thought  sometimes  a  handle  has  been  groundlessly,  at  least 
it  has  been  wickedly  taken  by  the  enemies  of  Christianity  to 
set  them  in  a  very  ridiculous  light.  Dr.  Patten's,  Mr.  Wit- 
tar's  and  Mr.  Home's  performances  are  exceeding  good,  and 
I  am  in  particular  prodigiously  pleased  with  Mr.  Home's 
State  of  the  Case,  etc.,  which  carries  all  before  it.  Would  to 
Heaven  all  Hutchinsonians  would  write  in  that  candid  and 
powerful  manner.  Their  cause,  which  I  am  persuaded  is 
the  cause  of  God,  would  at  length,  methinks,  bear  down  all 
opposition.  I  long  for  those  things  he  seems  to  hint  as  be 
ing  upon  the  anvil.  In  short  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you 
for  all  those  tracts,  which  are  very  excellent.  I  am  heartily 
glad  Mr.  Hutchinson's  works  are  so  much  esteemed  at  Ox 
ford,  and  you  may  depend  upon  it,  I  shall  do  my  best  to  make 
that  University  my  pattern  as  far  as  may  be,  and  particularly 
to  induce  as  many  as  I  can  to  study  the  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
and  to  understand  his  writings.  I  thank  God  my  College 
has  at  last  got  the  victory  of  its  enemies,  having  had  an  act 
passed  this  fall  in  favor  of  it  by  our  Assembly,  and  all  op- 
posers  stop  their  mouths.  The  foundation  of  the  building  is 
laid,  to  be  carried  on  vigorously  in  spring.  But  as  we  shall 
want  much  assistance,  I  am  very  thankful  for  the  forward 
ness  you  express  to  promote  it,  for  the  books  contributed, 
and  believe  we  shall  soon  empower  somebody  to  put  for 
ward  a  subscription  in  England. 

As  to  Tillotson,  I  have  myself  been  heretofore  a  great 
admirer  of  his  sermons,  but  for  these  several  years  have  been 
sensible  of  the  ill-effects  of  them  in  these  parts,  as  well  as  of 
some  others  worse  than  they  much  here  in  vogue,  —  and 
done  my  best  to  guard  against  them ;  but  as  he  has  long  been 
in  possession,  it  will  not  do  here  to  speak  against  him  with 
much  acrimony  except  among  Methodists.  The  Remarks  on 
his  life  are  doubtless  but  too  just.  However  it  is  good  to 
keep  the  golden  mean  and  hold  moderation,  as  far  as  can  con- 


232  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

sist  with  a  wise  zeal  and  steadiness  to  the  cause  of  God,  and 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

I  am  sadly  grieved  for  the  melancholy  account  you  give 
me  of  some  of  the  chief  dignitaries,  and  the  condition  of  the 
Church  there,  and  little  hopes  of  any  establishment  in  our 
favor  here.  I  confess  I  should  scarce  have  thought  my  dear 
sou's  life  ill  bestowed  (nor  I  believe  would  he)  if  it  could 
have  been  a  means  of  awakening  this  stupid  age  to  a  sense 
of  the  necessity  of  sending  Bishops  (at  least  one  good  one)  to 
take  care  of  the  Church  in  these  vastly  wide  extended  re 
gions.  But  alas  !  what  can  be  expected  of  such  an  age  as 
this  !  0  Deus  bone  in  quce  tempora  reservastis  nos  !  This  is 
now  the  seventh  precious  life  (most  of  them  the  flower  of 
this  country)  that  has  been  sacrificed  to  the  atheistical  pol 
itics  of  this  miserable  abandoned  age,  which  seems  to  have 
lost  all  notion  of  the  necessity  of  a  due  regard  to  the  interest 
of  Religion,  in  order  to  secure  the  blessing  of  God  on  our  na 
tion  both  at  home  and  abroad.  As  to  us  here,  as  things  have 
hitherto  gone,  we  can  scarce  look  for  anything  else  but  to 
come  under  a  foreign  yoke. 

But  it  is  now  high  time  I  should  relieve  your  patience  when 
I  begin  to  have  scarce  any  left  of  my  own.  I  therefore  con 
clude  with  my  sincere  thanks  for  your  affectionate  prayers  for 
me  and  mine,  the  continuance  of  which  I  still  desire ;  and  be 
assured  that  both  you  and  your  relatives  and  friends  shall 
always  be  severally  remembered  in  mine,  who  am,  dear  Sir, 
Your  most  affectionate  friend  and  brother  in  Christ, 

S.  J. 

The  affairs  of  the  College  in  the  mean  time  went 
on  prosperously,  and  Dr.  Johnson  applied  all  his  en 
ergies  to  give  form  and  effect  to  the  plans  of  the  Over 
seers.  They  appointed  as  Tutor,  to  take  the  place 
of  his  lamented  son,  Mr.  Leonard  Cutting,  a  gentle 
man  who  had  been  educated  at  Eton  and  the  Uni 
versity  of  Cambridge,  and  was  well  qualified  to  fill 
the  position.  It  was  decided  to  locate  the  College 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  233 

building  "  in  the  skirts  of  the  city/'  and  the  first 
stone,  with  a  suitable  inscription,  was  laid  on  the  23d 
of  August,  1756,  by  Sir  Charles  Hardy,  at  which  time 
the  President  made  a  short  Latin  address  to  the  Gov 
ernors,  to  Sir  Charles,  and  Mr.  De  Lancy,  the  Lieuten 
ant-governor  of  the  Province,  "  congratulating  them 
on  this  happy  event,  which  was  followed  with  an  ele 
gant  dinner."  But  an  interruption  of  his  personal 
work  soon  occurred. 

The  appearance  of  the  small-pox  in  the  city  at  the 
setting  in  of  the  winter  of  1756  obliged  him  to  re 
tire  to  West  Chester,  where  he  ministered  to  the  poor 
people  who  had  been  disappointed  in  their  expecta 
tions  of  having  his  son  for  their  Rector.  The  thirty 
pupils  in  the  three  classes  were  left  in  charge  of  Mr. 
Cutting,  to  whom  Mr.  Daniel  Treadwell,  a  graduate 
of  Harvard  College,  was  added  as  an  assistant,  having 
been  appointed  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natu 
ral  Philosophy.  Dr.  Johnson  himself  did  what  he 
could  in  the  way  of  advice  and  direction,  but  his 
long  absence  was  felt  to  be  a  hindrance  to  the  best 
designs  of  the  Institution.  At  first  he  seems  to 
have  retired  alone  without  his  family,  for  he  wrote 
to  his  son  from  West  Chester  on  the  19th  of  Decem 
ber  to  say,  "  The  kindness  of  everybody  here  is  inex 
pressible.  My  Lord  [Underbill]  and  his  family  think 
nothing  too  good  for  me,  or  too  much  to  do,  and 
everything  I  say  is  a  law  to  them.  The  next  day 
after  you  went  away,  he  begged  I  would  be  perfectly 
at  home  and  call  for  everything  I  wanted.  I  told 
him,  when  at  home,  I  always  had  my  family  together 
morning  and  evening  to  prayers,  and  should  be  glad 
to  do  the  same  here.  He  was  very  glad  at  my  mo- 


234  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

tion,  and  is  prodigiously  pleased  with  the  practice,  in 
somuch  that  he  tells  all  his  neighbors  of  it,  and  if 
any  of  them  are  here,  he  will  not  let  them  go  away 
before  prayers  are  over. 

"  The  snow  looked  terribly,  but  they  intend,  if  it 
will  continue,  to  make  an  advantage  of  it.  My  Lord 
and  the  Major  have  this  evening,  since  church,  en 
gaged  fourteen  sleds  to  go  to-morrow  and  fetch  all  up 
at  once,  so  that  I  hope  we  may  soon  be  together  again, 
but  it  looks  threatening  for  another  storm." 

The  storm  did  continue,  and  some  days  elapsed  be 
fore  the  removal  was  accomplished.  In  this  retire 
ment  he  found  opportunity  to  refresh  his  mind  with 
favorite  studies,  and  to  review  some  of  the  judg 
ments  which  he  had  formed  at  an  earlier  period  of 
his  ministry.  Writing  to  his  son  on  the  30th  of  Jan 
uary,  1757,  he  said :  "  Your  notion  of  those  Oxford 
gentlemen  is  doubtless  very  right,  and  I  hope  we  shall 
have  more  of  their  zealous  labors  to  preserve  Religion 
from  sinking  in  this  apostatizing  age.  I  confess  Dr. 
Clarke,  etc.,  had  led  me  far  many  years  ago  into  the 
reasoning  humor,  now  so  fashionable  in  matters  of  Re 
ligion,  from  which  I  bless  God  I  was  happily  reclaimed, 
first  by  Forbes  and  more  perfectly  by  Hutchinson, 
whose  system  I  have  been  now  more  thoroughly  can 
vassing  from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  since  this  retire 
ment,  in  regard  to  the  Philosophical  as  well  as  the 
Theological  part,  and,  to  my  unspeakable  satisfaction, 
am  much  convinced  it  is,  in  both,  entirely  right,  and 
I  could  wish  you  to  read  both  Forbes  and  Pike  over 
and  over  again. 

"  But  your  dear  brother  yet  lies  very  near  my 
heart,  and  I  cannot  avoid  yet  daily  and  hourly  follow- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  235 

ing  him  in  my  thoughts,  with  the  utmost  tenderness, 
into  the  world  of  Spirits,  whither  he  is  gone  before  us. 
And  when  I  pray  for  you  and  all  of  us,  I  cannot  help 
remembering  him,  as  I  used  to  do,  but  in  some  such 
words  as  these  :  <  I  humbly  hope  my  dear  departed 
son  is  accepted  with  Thee  in  Thy  blessed  Son,  and 
that  thou  art  still  his  God.  0  be  the  God  of  us  also 
that  survive,  —  our  God  and  guide  and  chief  good  in 
time  and  to  all  eternity.'  The  expression  you  know 
is  taken  from  that  of  the  God  of  Abraham,  etc.,  ap 
plied  by  our  Saviour  to  the  Resurrection  ;  but  we 
must  remember  it  means  in  the  original  their  Ulohim, 
i.  e.,  their  Father,  Redeemer,  and  Comforter.  No  won 
der  then  it  includes  the  Resurrection.  This  custom 
of  commemorating  our  departed  friends  obtained  in 
the  best  and  earliest  times  of  Christianity,  and  by 
degrees  degenerated  to  praying  for  them  out  of  pur 
gatory." 

By  the  advice  of  his  friends,  he  continued  in  his 
retirement  at  West  Chester  for  upwards  of  a  year, 
the  prevalence  of  the  small-pox  in  the  city  not  mak 
ing  it  prudent  for  him  to  resume  his  College  duties. 
In  the  mean  time  he  made  a  visit  with  his  wife  to 
Stratford,  and  spent  several  weeks  of  the  early  sum 
mer  of  1757  among  his  old  friends  and  parishioners. 
The  journey  was  performed  in  a  leisurely  and  private 
manner,  and  writing  to  his  son  on  the  last  day  of 
July,  not  long  after  the  return  to  West  Chester,  he 
for  the  first  time  spoke  of  the  illness  of  his  wife.  Her 
sickness  proved  to  be  the  fever  and  ague,  a  complaint 
which  then  prevailed  quite  extensively  in  that  neigh 
borhood,  and  another  member  of  his  household  was  ill 
in  the  same  way,  —  Mrs.  Georgiana  Maverick,  —  the 


236  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

widowed  daughter  of  his  wife  by  her  former  husband. 
No  immediate  danger  attended  this  sickness,  but  per 
sons  afflicted  with  it,  especially  those  of  feeble  consti 
tutions,  were  often  so  shattered  and  reduced  by  its  se 
verity  as  never  to  recover.  The  following  note,  writ 
ten  to  the  wife  of  his  son,  shows  his  anxiety  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  the  complaint :  — 

WEST  CHESTER,  September  12,  1757. 

DEAR  DAUGHTER,  —  I  am  sensible  my  son  is  not  at  home, 
for  which  reason  I  write  to  you  to  let  you  know  how  it  is 
with  us.  It  is  an  exceeding  sickly  time  in  these  parts,  and 
we  have  our  share  of  it,  having  all  of  us  had  the  fever  and 
ague,  but  your  poor  mother  has  a  very  bad  fever.  She  had 
got  well  of  the  first  turn  so  as  to  ride  about  several  times, 
but  yesterday  a  week  ago  she  was  taken  bad  again,  and  has 
been  bad  all  the  week  and  so  continues,  and  God  only  knows 
what  will  be  the  event.  It  seems  to  be  of  the  kind  they  call 
the  long  fever,  but  I  hope  it  may  have  a  comfortable  issue. 
I  mention  our  case  that  my  son  may  know  how  it  is  when  he 
comes  home,  but  would  not  have  him  troubled  with  it  where 
he  is,  and  I  hope  I  may  be  able  to  give  him  a  better  account 
of  it  by  the  time  he  returns.  I  was  glad  to  find  by  his  last 
letter  that  you  were  all  in  health,  which  I  pray  God  con 
tinue.  We  all  give  our  kind  love  to  you  and  the  children, 
and  to  him  when  lie  returns,  and  to  Mrs.  Beach. 
I  am,  dear  daughter, 

Your  most  affectionate  father  and  friend, 

S.   JOHNSON. 

The  next  letter  bore  more  favorable  intelligence, 
but  the  signs  of  improvement  were  not  lasting.  Un 
der  the  pressure  of  all  his  trials,  his  pen  was  employed 
whenever  he  could  be  of  any  service  to  the  Church, 
and  on  the  3d  of  October,  he  excused  himself  from 
writing  more  largely  to  his  son,  because  he  had  been 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  237 

obliged  to  prepare  a  long  letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wet- 
more,  who  had  applied  to  him  for  his  advice  to  be 
communicated  to  a  meeting  of  the  clergy  which  he 
was  about  to  call  at  Stamford  on  the  13th  at  the  in 
stance  of  the  Society  "  to  look  into  the  affairs  of  Mr. 
Beach's1  sermon,  and  try  to  bring  him  to  a  better 
mind."  "  Truly,"  said  Johnson,  "  things  are  come  to 
that  pass  that  he  must  make  some  submission  to  the 
Society  or  be  discarded,  or  at  least  severely  repri 
manded,  for  Hobart 2  has  procured  a  complaint  from 
their  Association  against  him  to  the  Society,  which  has 
put  them  on  these  measures,  though  I  wish  this  could 
be  concealed,  and  that  it  could  be  rather  represented 
as  arising  ex  proprio  molu  from  other  information," 
which  the  Society  possessed.  Writing  to  his  son  a 
week  later,  he  referred  again  to  Mr.  Beach  playfully 
as  one  who  "  had  always  those  two  seeming  inconsis 
tencies,  to  be  dying  and  yet  relishing  sublunary 
things."  The  reprimand,  if  given,  seems  not  to  have 
been  very  severe,  and  Mr.  Beach  subsequently  in  a 
measure  atoned  for  bis  mistake  by  the  publication  of  a 
sermon  on  "  Scripture  Mysteries,"  which  received  the 
sanction  of  his  brethren,  and  was  introduced  to  the 
public  with  a  preface  from  the  pen  of  Johnson  himself. 
Not  deeming  it  prudent  to  return  to  New  York  in 
consequence  of  the  small-pox,  he  moved  into  more 
comfortable  quarters  at  West  Chester,  and  for  a  good 
part  of  the  winter  was  alternately  hopeful  and  fear 
ful  about  the  result  of  his  wife's  illness.  Occasionally 
his  sorrow  for  the  death  of  his  son  would  break  out 

*  Rev.  John  Beach.  The  sermon  was  An  Inquiry  concerning  the  State  of  the 
Dead,  which  was  misunderstood,  and  he  regretted  its  publication. 

«  Mr.  Beach  had  very  properly  answered  his  "  Addresses  to  the  members  of  the 
Episcopal  Separation  in  New  England." 


238  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

afresh,  and  any  allusion  to  it  by  an  English  friend  was 
sure  to  stir  the  depths  of  his  feeling.  He  closed  a 
letter  to  his  son  at  Stratford,  December  18,  1757, 
thus :  "  You  tell  me  in  your  last  you  have  had  the 
melancholy  pleasure  of  seeing  Mr.  Harison.  It  must 
be  so,  indeed  ;  but  though  I  have  been  very  impatient 
for  it,  I  have  not  yet  had  the  opportunity.  He 
sent  me  a  short  letter  from  Dr.  Bearcroft,  of  July  2. 
by  which  it  appears  he  had  written  to  me  the  Sep 
tember  before,  which  must  have  miscarried.  It  only 
relates  to  a  scheme  of  the  Society,  to  educate  some 
Indian  youths  in  my  College  as  an  expedient  towards 
propagating  Christianity  among  them.  I  want  very 
much  to  see  him,  in  order  the  better  to  know  how  to 
write  my  letters  and  what  to  do  with  these  bills,  and 
I  fear  I  shall  lose  the  opportunities. 

Christmas  is  quite  at  hand,  and  if  we  may  not  have 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  here  (which  though  I  long 
for,  yet  I  durst  not  expect,  however  so  much  I  desire 
it,  it  being  such  a  tedious  journey),  I  wish  you  may 
have  a  pleasant  one  and  a  happy  new  year,  and  many, 
many  more." 

He  was  induced  to  consult  his  old  family  physician 
at  Stratford,  Dr.  Harpin,  about  his  wife,  who,  as 
the  winter  wore  on,  became  troubled  with  a  cough 
and  shortness  of  breath,  and  other  symptoms  of  a  con 
sumption.  She  gradually  improved  under  the  use  of 
new  remedies,  and  by  the  middle  of  February,  Dr. 
Johnson  began  to  think  of  returning  to  his  duties  in 
town.  The  appearance  of  the  small-pox  at  West 
Chester  hastened  this  step,  for  in  a  letter  to  his  son  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1758,  he  said  :  "  The  young  fellows 
here  purposely  take  the  small-pox  so  much,  that  J  be* 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  239 

lieve  we  cannot  be  any  longer  safer  here  than  at  town, 
so  that  I  think  to  go  within  about  a  week,  and  the 
family  will,  I  believe,  hardly  continue  out  the  month 
before  they  follow  me."  Three  weeks  later  he  wrote 
again,  but  now  from  New  York,  where  he  had  been 
nearly  the  whole  of  this  time  at  the  house  of  his  step 
son,  and  mentioned,  "  I  have  been  but  little  abroad  as 
yet,  though  I  have  some  thoughts  of  venturing  to 
church  to-morrow.  I  have  been  and  shall  be  very 
careful,  but  the  small-pox  is  certainly  very  thin  now, 
as  neither  doctors  nor  ministers,  nor  anybody  else 
that  I  have  seen,  can  tell  where  it  is,  of  their  own 
knowledge  ;  but  doubtless  it  is  in  some  remote  skirts 
of  the  town.  However,  I  hope  God  will  preserve  me 
from  it :  the  Freshmen  have  attended  me  every  day 
at  your  brother's." 

The  family  followed  him  to  town  early  in  April,  and 
carried  with  them  the  fever  and  ague,  which  had  af 
flicted  his  wife  and  daughter  so  long  at  West  Chester. 
The  change  brought  no  real  relief,  and  the  letters  of 
the  father  to  the  son  spoke  more  and  more  discour- 
agingly  of  the  recovery  of  Mrs.  Johnson.  The  crisis 
had  been  reached  and  all  hope  relinquished,  when  the 
following  was  written  from,  — 

NEW  YORK,  May  29,  Monday,  11  o'clock. 

MY  DEAREST  SON,  —  God  is  now  calling  me  to  pass 
through  another  great  revolution  in  my  circumstances ; 
another  great  change  in  my  condition,  which  I  hope  may  fur 
ther  contribute  to  prepare  me  the  better  for  my  last.  I  should 
have  written  by  Philip  Nicholls,  but  he  called  in  the  utmost 
hurry  so  early,  that  having  sat  up  till  1  o'clock,  I  was  not  yet 
awake.  He  could  give  you,  or  at  best  my  dear  daughter,  a 
prelude  to  what  is  now  to  follow.  Your  dear  mother  continued 


240  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

as  she  was,  without  seeming  worse  till  about  six  o'clock  last 
Friday  evening,  having  rid  out  the  day  before,  and  conversed 
and  walked  about  as  usual,  and  would  have  rid  out  that  day 
but  the  wind  was  too  high.  But  about  that  hour  she  was 
seized  all  at  once  with  a  terrible  shivering,  not  cold,  but  con 
vulsive,  which  issued  in  a  most  terrible  fever,  and  tormenting 
pains,  except  short  intervals  of  dozing,  which  continued  till 
midnight  last  night,  since  which  she  has  been  tolerably  easy 
and  slept  a  good  deal,  but  is  reduced  to  the  lowest  ebb  of  life, 
and  cannot  hold  it  many  hours.  She  is  perfectly  resigned,  and 
sometimes  even  longs  to  be  released,  with  good  hopes  of  a 
blessed  immortality.  May  God  give  her  an  abundant  en 
trance  into  his  heavenly  kingdom,  and  a  happy  meeting  with 
your  dear  brother  ! 

Had  you  been  at  Stratford,  I  should  have  sent  an  express 
for  you  to  come,  but  the  suddenness  of  the  occasion,  all  the 
while  threatening  speedy  death,  together  with  your  great  dis 
tance,  made  us  think  it  best  to  decline  it,  though  I  shall  hope 
to  see  you  as  soon  as  may  be,  as  you  may  chance  to  be  here 
before  her  funeral.  But  you  must  be  careful  and  inquisitive 
as  you  come  along,  as  I  hear  the  small-pox  is  much  at  New 
Rochelle,  and  about  the  half  way  to  the  Bridge,  where  you 
may  do  well  to  have  some  tar  to  smell  to,  and  tobacco  in  your 
mouth.  Yesterday  I  asked  her  whether  there  was  anything 
she  would  have  me  say  to  you  in  particular.  She  bid  me 
give  her  love  and  dying  blessing  to  you  and  your  children. 
Take  care,  dear  son,  you  do  not  overdo  yourself.  You  are 
now  my  all  in  effect.  Your  brother  and  sisters  with  me  give 
our  love  to  you  all.  LacJirymans  scribo,  being,  dear  son, 
Your  most  affectionate,  but  very  afflicted  father, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

She  lingered  till  the  Thursday  evening  after  the 
date  of  this  letter,  and  then  expired,  thus  sundering 
a  happy  connection  which  had  existed  for  more  than 
thirty-two  years.  She  was  buried  under  the  chancel 
of  Trinity  Church  —  the  old  edifice  which  was  after- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  241 

wards  destroyed  in  the  great  conflagration  that  befell 
the  city  during  the  Revolutionary  War. 

It  had  been  decided  to  hold  the  first  commence 
ment  of  the  College  on  the  21st  of  June,  and  John 
son,  who  was  desirous  of  making  a  good  appearance, 
turned,  in  the  freshness  of  his  grief,  to  the  work  of 
preparing  for  this  occasion.  The  graduating  class 
numbered  eight,  and  the  two  tutors,  Cutting  and 
Treadwell,  with  eleven  other  gentlemen,  were  admit 
ted  to  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  An  "  elegant 
entertainment "  followed  the  public  exercises,  and 
such  was  the  interest  manifested  in  the  Institution 
that  a  new  impulse  seemed  to  be  given  to  its  pros 
perity.  Materials  for  completing  the  college  building 
were  at  once  procured,  and  then  when  the  stone  had 
been  delivered,  a  delay  arose  from  an  unexpected 
cause.  The  difficulty  of  finding  suitable  workmen 
prevented  any  progress,  so  that  nothing  more  was 
done  till  the  winter  had  passed  away  and  the  spring 
opened.  In  the  meantime  Johnson,  who  had  previ 
ously  applied  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and 
other  friends  in  England  for  aid  in  behalf  of  the  Col 
lege,  was  not  much  encouraged  by  the  answers  which 
he  received.  A  good  philosophical  and  mathemati 
cal  apparatus  had  been  obtained,  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Bristowe,  of  London,  who  befriended  his  lamented 
son,  intimated  his  purpose  of  procuring  a  large  library 
for  the  infant  seminary,  a  purpose  which  he  after 
wards  executed  by  bequeathing  to  it  his  own  valuable 
collection  of  nearly  fifteen  hundred  volumes.  But 
money  to  finish  the  building  and  endow  the  College 
was  not  readily  given. 

Having  two  good  tutors,  one  to  take  charge  of  the 

16 


242  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Classical  and  the  other  of  the  Mathematical  depart 
ment,  he  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  teaching  the  New 
Testament  in  Greek  ;  and  to  Logic,  Metaphysics,  and 
Ethics,  with  lessons  in  Hebrew  to  those  who  desired 
to  become  acquainted  with  that  language.  He  was 
interrupted  for  a  time  in  his  duties  by  sickness  in  the 
family,  and  was  himself  severely  attacked  with  the 
measles  in  March,  1759,  from  which  it  was  feared  he 
might  not  recover.  "  God  grant,"  he  wrote  to  his 
son  after  all  danger  was  passed,  "  that  my  life  may 
have  been  spared  to  some  good  purpose,  and  that 
what  remains  of  it  may  be  more  abundantly  employed 
to  his  glory  in  the  station  I  am  in !  " 

A  gloomy  and  anxious  winter  was  not  succeeded  by 
a  joyous  spring,  for  Mrs.  Maverick,  upon  whom, 
since  the  death  of  his  wife,  he  had  depended  for  the 
oversight  of  his  domestic  affairs,  was  in  a  precarious 
state  of  health,  with  decided  tendencies  to  consump 
tion.  As  late  as  the  28th  of  May,  in  reply  to  an  in 
vitation  from  his  son's  wife  to  visit  Stratford,  he  said  : 
"  Your  sister  thanks  you  for  your  kind  letter,  but  by 
reason  of  her  weakness,  begs  me  to  answer  it  for  her. 
She,  as  well  as  I,  would  gladly  make  you  a  visit,  but 
she  continues  so  infirm  that  I  can  neither  bring  her 
nor  leave  her ;  so  that  I  must  not  have  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  you  and  my  dear  little  girls  this  spring,  but 
hope  I  may  in  the  fall." 

In  less  than  a  month  from  this  date  he  had  given  up 
all  hope  of  her  recovery,  and  admitted  to  her  friends 
that  she  was  in  a  "  fixed,  incurable  consumption." 
Her  death  came  sooner  than  he  expected  ;  occurring 
on  the  28th  of  June,  thirteen  months  from  the  decease 
of  her  mother,  and  she  was  buried  in  the  same  grave 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  243 

above  her,  under  the  chancel  of  Trinity  Church.  "  I 
am  again,"  he  informed  his  son,  "  bereaved,  and  now 
in  a  manner  stripped.  Your  dear  sister  is  gone  and 
has  left  me  very  disconsolate."  The  event  opened 
afresh  his  former  griefs,  and  revived  his  inclinations 
to  retire  from  the  charge  of  the  College  and  spend 
the  remainder  of  his  days  in  Stratford.  But  he  was 
urged  to  remain,  and  the  state  of  the  Institution  al 
most  forbid  him  to  leave  it  at  this  crisis. 

The  second  Commencement  had  just  been  held  and 
was  private  ;  one  student  only  being  admitted  to  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  The  building  was  going 
on  vigorously  under  his  own  eye,  and  his  counsel  and 
influence  were  much  needed  in  the  further  steps  to  be 
taken  for  the  advancement  of  the  College.  The  fol 
lowing  letter  to  Archbishop  Seeker  shows  that  while 
he  was  deeply  interested  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
Church  at  large,  and  desirous  of  seeing  another  Mis 
sion  established  in  New  England,  he  was  on  the  watch 
also  for  some  suitable  person  to  be  his  successor. 

April  25,  1 759. 

MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUB.  GRACE,  —  In  the  beginning  of  last 
month  I  wrote  an  answer  in  part  to  your  Grace's  most  kind 
letter  of  September  27.  I  hoped  then  by  this  time  to  have 
made  a  reply  to  the  rest  of  that  very  important  letter,  but  I 
have  not  sufficient  information  relating  to  some  things,  espec 
ially  what  concerns  our  frontiers.  The  occasion  of  my  now 
writing  is  the  desire  and  request  of  the  clergy  of  Boston,  that 
some  letters  of  mine  may  accompany  theirs  that  are  going  by 
this  pacquet  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Apthorp  and  a  Mission  at  Cam 
bridge  near  Boston.  Indeed,  that  paragraph  of  your  Grace's 
letter  relating  to  Missions  in  New  England,  very  much  dis 
courages  me  from  writing  anything  relating  to  new  Missions 
in  these  provinces.  What  I  am  now  doing,  therefore,  pro- 


244  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

coeds  purely  from  my  friendship  to  those  worthy  gentlemen, 
to  which  I  should  be  wanting,  if  I  should  refuse  to  write  any 
thing  on  this  occasion.  I  therefore  humbly  beg  your  Grace 
will  excuse  me,  if  I  only  suggest  that  I  am  fully  satisfied  that 
a  Mission  would  be  of  very  good  use  to  the  interest  of  the 
Church  and  true  religion  so  near  that  College,  for  the  reasons 
they  give,  but  what  strongly  sways  with  me  is,  that  we  want 
extremely  to  have  as  many  worthy  men  as  possible  in  this 
country,  and  Mr.  Apthorp,  by  all  accounts  of  him,  is  indeed 
a  very  superior  young  gentleman,  having  been  bred  at  Cam 
bridge,  England,  and  merited  a  fellowship  there,  and  that 
estimation  and  prospect  of  preferment  that  everybody  won 
ders  at  his  disposition  to  tarry  in  this,  even  though  it  be  his 
native  country,  at  all.  And  since  it  is  so,  I  am  very  desir 
ous  to  keep  him,  and  the  rather  as  he,  having  a  considerable 
fortune  of  his  own,  may  probably  prove  a  fitter  person  than 
any  we  can  ever  expect  to  procure  to  succeed  me  in  this  sta 
tion,  and  I  am  very  desirous,  if  it  may  be,  to  be  acquainted 
with  my  successor  before  I  leave  it,  and  that  he  may  be  some 
worthy  person  who  has  been  bred  at  one  of  your  Universi 
ties  at  home.  However,  whether  the  Society  can  think 
proper  to  make  a  new  Mission  in  New  England  under  the 
present  condition  of  things,  must  be  humbly  submitted  to 
the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  the  Board. 

I  remain,  may  it  please  your  Grace, 

Your  Grace's  most  obliged,  etc., 

S.  J. 

In  writing  to  Dr.  Bearcroft,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Society,  two  months  after  this,  he  expressed  himself  as 
having  little  expectation  of  a  collection  in  England 
for  his  College,  but  it  needed  assistance  so  much,  and 
he  urged  its  claims  with  such  zeal,  that  the  board  gen 
erously  donated  .£500  sterling,  —  a  gift  which  seemed 
to  put  new  life  into  the  hopes  and  energies  of  the 
somewhat  tardy  Governors.  He  defended  at  this 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  245 

period  the  Missionaries  of  the  Society  against  the 
complaints  of  the  Dissenters,  who  accused  them  of 
using  undue  means  to  gain  the  attention  of  their 
brethren  and  make  converts.  Seeker  had  written 
him  for  information  on  the  subject,  and  he  replied 
repelling  the  accusations,  and  adding :  "  The  quarrels 
of  the  Dissenters  among  themselves,  especially,  occa 
sioned  by  the  late  enthusiasm,  contributed  vastly  more 
to  drive  honest  thinking  people  into  the  Church  than 
any  endeavors  of  the  clergy  to  make  proselytes. 
There  is  now  a  flagrant  instance  of  this  at  Walling- 
ford,  a  large  country  town  in  the  heart  of  Connecti 
cut."  The  "  late  enthusiasm "  was  the  result  of 
Whitefield's  itinerancy,  and  a  body  of  "  shocking 
teachers  followed  him,  who  propagated  so  many  wild 
notions  of  God  and  the  Gospel,  that  a  multitude  of 
people  were  so  bewildered  that  they  could  find  no 
rest  to  the  sole  of  their  feet  till  they  retired  into 
the  Church  as  the  only  ark  of  safety."  The  great 
want  of  the  Church  here  was  a  Bishop,  and  he  im 
plored  the  authorities  at  home,  in  spite  of  the  mis 
representations  of  their  adversaries,  to  send  one  to 
America.  "  He  need  not,"  he  said,  "  be  fixed  in  New 
England,  or  in  any  part  where  Dissenters  abound. 
He  might  be  fixed  at  Virginia,  where  the  Church  is 
established,  and  only  visit  us  northward  once  in  three 
or  four  years.  We  should  be  content  to  ride  three  or 
four  hundred  miles  for  Holy  Orders." 

No  objection  was  made  at  a  meeting  of  the  Society 
to  the  Mission  at  Cambridge,  and  to  the  appointment 
of  Mr.  Apthorp,  with  an  annual  stipend  of  .£50.  He 
met  with  a  better  reception  at  first  among  the  Dis 
senters  than  was  anticipated,  and  his  temper,  pru- 


240  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

dence,  and  abilities,  gave  him  great  advantage,  if  not 
influence,  in  that  important  seat  of  learning.  But  the 
Archbishop  did  not  so  complacently  accord  with  John 
son  in  his  plan  of  providing  for  his  own  retirement. 
"  Your  views/'  he  said,  "in  relation  to  a  successor,  are 
very  worthy  of  you  ;  but  I  hope  many  years  will  pass 
before  there  be  occasion  to  deliberate  on  that  head." 
The  change  might  bring  with  it  no  little  discourage 
ment,  and  put  in  peril  the  best  interests  of  the  Insti 
tution.  At  least  it  was  too  soon  to  give  publicity  to 
his  intentions,  and  work  with  this  end  mainly  in  view. 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  247 


CHAPTER  X. 

SMALL-POX  AGAIN  IN  NEW  YORK,  AND  RETIREMENT  TO  STRAT 
FORD  ;  MORE  AFFLICTION;  THIRD  COMMENCEMENT;  LETTERS  TO 
THE  ARCHBISHOP  OF  CANTERBURY;  PUBLICATIONS  ON  PRAYER, 
AND  DEFENSE  OF  THE  LITURGY. 

A.  D.    1759-1761. 

THE  disease  which  had  been  the  great  horror  of  his 
life,  drove  him  once  more  from  his  post.  "  Never  " 
he  wrote  to  his  son,  on  the  15th  of  October,  "  was 
anything  known  like  the  present  breaking  out  of  the 
sinall-pox  in  New  York.  It  seems  as  though  it  arose 
out  of  the  ground.  They  are  surprised  at  it  and  can 
not  account  for  it."  He  undertook  to  keep  himself 
from  exposure,  and  for  a  time  heard  the  recitations 
of  the  classes  in  his  own  dwelling,  but  soon  the  dis 
ease  appeared  almost  at  his  door,  and  fortifying 
himself  as  best  he  could,  he  hurried  from  the  city  to 
a  farm-house  in  the  suburbs,  where  he  remained  until 
all  danger  of  having  taken  it  was  past,  and  then  with 
a  servant  he  proceeded  to  Stratford.  Shut  up  in  this 
rural  retreat,  he  spent  the  winter  with  his  son,  more 
anxious  than  ever  for  the  College,  since  one  of  the 
tutors  —  Mr.  Treadwell  —  was  in  a  decline,  and  could 
render  very  little  assistance  to  his  colleague.  He 
died  of  consumption  before  the  spring  had  much  ad 
vanced  ;  and  thus  the  entire  management  of  the  In 
stitution,  in  the  absence  of  the  President,  devolved 
upon  Mr.  Cutting. 


243  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

Dr.  Johnson  did  not  return  to  New  York  until  the 
middle  of  May,  and  it  was  with  some  fear  that  he 
ventured  at  this  time,  for  there  were  a  few  scattered 
cases  of  small-pox  about  the  town,  and  he  could  not 
know  when  he  might  expose  himself  and  become  a 
victim  of  the  distemper.  A  desolate  feeling  possessed 
him  as  he  resumed  his  college  duties.  The  city  ap 
peared  to  him  as  it  never  had  before,  almost  a  wil 
derness,  for  besides  the  loss  of  Mr.  Treadwell,  a  place 
among  the  Governors  had  been  vacated  which  he 
could  not  hope  to  see  again  filled  by  one  of  equal 
energy  and  influence.  Benjamin  Nicoll,  the  younger 
son  of  his  deceased  wife,  whose  education  from  child 
hood  he  had  superintended,  who  had  risen  to  the 
highest  eminence  as  a  lawyer  in  the  city,  and  whose 
house  had  been  his  home  as  much  as  that  of  his  own 
son  in  Stratford,  sickened  and  died  at  the  age  of 
forty-two,  in  April,  1760,  before  he  could  return. 
It  was  said  that  "  never  in  the  memory  of  man  at 
New  York  was  any  one  so  much  lamented."  His 
death  was  the  severest  misfortune  which  had  befallen 
the  College.  It  filled  its  friends  with  consternation, 
and  to  Johnson  in  particular  it  was  a  most  painful 
bereavement,  for  of  all  the  members  of  the  govern 
ing  board,  none  was  more  able,  wise,  and  zealous  than 
he,  and  upon  none  had  he  relied  more  confidently 
to  carry  him  through  his  perplexities  and  trials,  and 
enable  him  to  place  the  College  upon  a  broad  and  firm 
foundation. 

His  long  absence  and  the  sickness  and  death  of  his 
"  best  tutor  "  had  been  a  serious  detriment  to  the  In 
stitution.  Several  of  the  students  withdrew,  and  the 
prospect  for  the  future  was  surrounded  with  gloom. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  249 

These  things  made  it  the  more  necessary  for  him  to 
apply  all  his  energy  and  ingenuity  to  recover  from 
the  losses  which  had  been  suffered,  and  get  back  the 
confidence  of  those  who  had  grown  lukewarm  or 
doubtful.  The  college  building,  one  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  in  length  by  thirty,  three  stories  high, 
erected  in  a  delightful  situation  near  the  Hudson 
Kiver,  and  "  opening  to  the  harbor,"  was  so  far  com 
pleted  that  he  moved  into  it  and  "  set  up  housekeep 
ing  and  tuition  there,  a  little  more  than  forty  years 
after  he  had  done  the  same  at  Yale  College  in  New 
Haven."  He  wrote  very  earnestly  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  begged  him  to  send  two  good  tutors 
—  one  that  might  be  qualified  in  time  to  succeed  him, 
and  the  other  to  take  the  department  of  mathematics 
and  experimental  philosophy,  made  vacant  by  the 
death  of  Mr.  Treadwell.  His  Grace  replied :  "  It 
grieves  me  that  you  should  be  without  help  so  long. 
If  any  other  person  can  procure  it  for  you,  I  should 
be  heartily  glad.  But  I  think  you  had  better  wait 
than  have  a  wrong  person  sent  you  from  hence. 
Could  you  not  get  some  temporary  assistance  in  your 
neighborhood  ?  " 

The  selection  was  a  difficult  one  in  view  of  the 
requirements  of  Johnson.  Among  other  names  rec 
ommended  to  Seeker  was  that  of  Myles  Cooper, — 
a  Fellow  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford.  He  had  the 
reputation  of  being  a  grave  and  good  man,  and  was 
"  very  well  affected  to  the  government ;  well  quali 
fied  for  the  inferior  tutor's  place,  but  not  inclined  to 
accept  it ;  not  unskilled  in  Hebrew,  and  willing  to 
take  the  Vice-President's  office,  but  not  of  age  for 
Priest's  Orders  "  till  the  lapse  of  several  months.  This 


250  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

gentleman,  as  it  will  be  seen,  was  afterwards  appointed 
and  made  a  useful  and  accomplished  head  of  the  In 
stitution. 

The  third  Commencement  and  the  first  from  the 
college  building,  was  now  held,  and  the  President  de 
livered  a  brief  speech  in  Latin  to  the  governing  body, 
congratulating  them  on  the  privilege  of  assembling  in 
their  new  hall,  and  marking  the  event  as  the  begin 
ning  of  a  fresh  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  college. 
The  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  was  conferred  upon 
six  young  gentlemen,  and  the  eclat  given  to  the  oc 
casion  helped  to  bring  the  officers  of  instruction 
favorably  before  the  public.  The  next  term  opened 
well,  but  as  no  assistance  had  been  obtained,  the 
President  and  Mr.  Cutting  were  obliged  to  do  double 
duty  ;  and  the  whole  year,  as  he  himself  said,  "  was 
remarkable  only  on  account  of  hard  services,  which 
made  him  more  and  more  weary  of  his  station." 

A  preparatory  school  was  projected  about  this  time, 
and  Johnson  applied  to  the  Rev.  East  Apthorp,  the 
scholarly  Missionary  at  Cambridge,  referred  to  in  the 
previous  chapter,  for  his  idea  of  what  might  be  "  ex 
ecuted  at  school  and  at  college  by  a  person  of  mid 
dling  genius,  persevering  in  a  regular  course  of  mod 
erate  study  and  assisted  by  good  instructors."  The 
very  full  answer  which  was  returned,  embraced  what 
he  was  pleased  to  call  an  "  excellent  plan  of  educa 
tion,"  and  he  would  have  been  contented  without 
seeking  tutors  from  abroad,  if  he  could  have  had  the 
assistance  of  Mr.  Apthorp  in  carrying  it  into  execu 
tion  throughout  the  whole  course.  "  But  since  Prov 
idence,"  he  wrote  him,  "  seems  to  be  ordering  other 
wise,  I  hope  you  are  reserved  for  yet  higher  and 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  251 

better  things.  It  may  yet  be  a  considerable  time  first, 
but  as  there  is  the  greatest  need  of  it,  and  the  utmost 
propriety  in  it,  that  bishops  should  be  sent  into 
America,  —  for  the  accomplishing  which  I  hope  you 
will  be  continually  using  your  influence  in  the  man 
ner  the  Archbishop  advises,  that  the  Church  may 
enjoy  in  full  her  government  and  discipline  here  at 
least  as  well  as  the  Dissenters  theirs,  —  I  hope  the 
time  is  not  a  great  way  off  before  that  most  prim 
itive  and  apostolical  order  may  be  established  here, 
and  I  pray  God  you  may  be  the  first  that  may  serve 
your  country  in  that  capacity." 

His  correspondence  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canter 
bury  turned  upon  matters  which  directly  concerned 
the  welfare  of  the  Church.  Sometimes,  but  rarely, 
he  touched  upon  delicate  questions  of  State  policy, 
and  during  his  retirement  at  Stratford  in  the  win 
ter  of  1759-60,  having  little  to  do,  and  taking  the 
advice  of  "  several  gentlemen  of  good  understanding 
and  public  spirit,"  he  drew  up  a  paper  with  a  view 
at  first  of  publishing  it  in  the  "  London  Magazine," 
but  upon  reflection  concluded  to  send  it  to  his  Grace 
and  inclose  copies  to  him  for  Lord  Halifax  and  Mr. 
Pitt,  with  instructions  to  suppress  or  communicate  his 
thoughts  as  he  should  see  fit.  Relying  on  his  great 
candor  he  added  in  reference  to  the  paper  :  "I  hum 
bly  hope  you  will  impute  it  to  the  feeble  struggles  of 
a  well-meaning  mind,  that  would  be  useful  to  the 
world  if  it  could,  but  desires  to  be  retired  and  con 
cealed.  I  can  only  assure  your  Grace  that  it  is  the 
wish  of  many  gentlemen  in  these  two  colonies,  though 
but  few  know  in  confidence  of  my  having  taken  this 
step." 


252  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

It  does  not  appear  what  the  particular  subjects 
were  which  he  thus  presented,  but  they  related  to 
America,  and  were  written  under  the  name  of  Philang- 
lus  Americanus.  They  met  with  no  favor,  for  the 
Archbishop  in  his  reply,  November  4th,  1760,  said  :  "  I 
shall  always  be  pleased  with  your  notifying  and  pro 
posing  to  me  whatever  you  apprehend  to  be  material ; 
because  I  know  it  will  always  be  done  with  good  inten 
tion,  and  almost  always  furnish  me  with  useful  notices  ; 
and  indeed  will  be  of  no  small  use,  even  when  you  may 
happen  to  judge  amiss,  as  it  will  give  me  an  opportu 
nity  of  setting  you  right.  In  my  opinion,  the  paper 
intended  for  the  '  London  Magazine/  and  the  letters 
for  Lord  Halifax  and  Mr.  Pitt,  are  of  the  latter  sort. 
The  things  said  in  them  are  in  the  main  right,  so  far 
as  they  may  be  practicable  ;  but  publishing  them  to 
the  world  beforehand,  instead  of  waiting  till  the  time 
comes,  and  then  applying  privately  to  the  persons 
whose  advice  the  king  will  take  about  them,  is  likely 
to  raise  opposition  and  prevent  success.  Publishing 
them,  indeed,  in  a  magazine,  may  raise  no  great 
alarm ;  but  then  it  will  be  apt  to  produce  contempt, 
for  those  monthly  collections  are  far  from  being  in 
high  esteem.  And  as  soon  as  either  of  those  great 
men  should  see  that  the  queries  offered  to  him  were 
designed  to  be  inserted  in  any  of  them,  he  would 
be  strongly  tempted  to  throw  them  aside,  without 
looking  further  into  them,  even  were  he  otherwise 
disposed  to  read  them  over  ;  which  men  of  business 
seldom  are,  when  they  receive  papers  from  unknown 
hands,  few  of  them  in  proportion  deserving  it.  You 
will  pardon  the  frankness  with  which  I  tell  you  my 
thoughts.  Whatever  good  use  I  can  make  of  your 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  253 

notions,  I  will.  But  the  use  which  you  propose  is 
not  agreeable  to  my  judgment." 

Johnson  had  mentioned  in  the  same  letter  which 
accompanied  his  paper  the  sudden  death  of  Mr.  De 
Lancey,  the  Lieutenant-governor  of  New  York,  and 
suggested  the  importance  of  appointing  in  his  place 
"  not  only  a  good  statesman,  but  a  friend  to  religion 
and  the  Church,  and  exemplary  in  attendance  on  her 
public  offices,  for  want  of  which,  religion  had  suffered 
extremely  in  that  province."  The  suggestion  was 
felt  to  be  worthy  of  consideration.  "  I  have  spoken," 
said  the  Archbishop,  "  concerning  a  Lieutenant-gov 
ernor,  in  the  manner  which  you  desired,  to  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  and  Mr.  Pitt,  and  also  to  Lord  Halifax, 
in  whom  the  choice  is.  They  all  admit  the  request 
to  be  a  very  reasonable  and  important  one  ;  and 
promise  that  care  shall  be  taken  about  it.  The  last 
of  them  is  very  earnest  for  Bishops  in  America.  I 
hope  we  may  have  a  chance  to  succeed  in  that  great 
point,  when  it  shall  please  God  to  bless  us  with  a 
peace." 

Every  letter  written  at  this  period  was  but  a  repe 
tition  of  the  wants  of  the  Church  in  the  American 
Colonies,  and  of  his  own  desire  for  aid  in  carrying 
on  the  College.  It  was  as  difficult  to  find  tutors  as 
suitable  persons  to  supply  the  vacant  missions.  After 
many  diligent  inquiries,  the  Archbishop  had  thus  far 
been  unsuccessful  in  meeting  his  wishes,  and  as  a 
means  of  providing  for  the  Church,  he  expressed 
the  hope  that  good  young  men  might  be  sent  over 
from  this  country  to  receive  ordination  and  be  re 
turned  to  fulfill  the  office  of  missionaries  in  the  old 
parishes.  The  eye  of  Johnson  was  especially  fixed 


25  i  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

upon  the  Church  in  Connecticut  and  New  York, 
though  he  was  depended  upon  in  London  for  informa 
tion  to  some  extent,  in  regard  to  all  the  colonies. 
The  Society  looked  to  him  for  facts  which  it  cost  him 
much  labor  to  procure,  and  frequently  it  was  a  long 
time  before  he  could  reply  intelligently  to  all  the  in 
quiries  received.  He  sent  off  by  every  packet  some 
thing  which  was  designed  to  put  his  English  friends 
and  patrons  in  possession  of  the  state  of  American 
feeling,  and  transmitted,  as  they  were  issued,  the  pam 
phlets  and  publications  that  bore  upon  the  concerns 
of  the  Church.  The  idea  of  the  geography  and  ex 
tent  of  this  continent  was  less  understood  in  England 
then  than  now, —  and  it  is  not  very  well  compre 
hended  at  the  present  time,  —  so  that  when  the  Arch 
bishop  of  Canterbury  in  the  same  letter  addressed 
questions  to  him  for  information  concerning  Missiona 
ries  from  Newfoundland  to  North  Carolina,  he  could 
not  answer  to  his  own  satisfaction  till  he  had  obtained 
the  data  on  which  to  proceed. 

Quietly  fixed  at  housekeeping  in  the  College  build 
ing,  he  passed  the  winter  of  1760-61,  and  took  great 
pains  to  preserve  his  health  and  avoid  exposure  to  the 
dreaded  contagious  disease.  He  wrote  his  son  at 
Stratford  about  the  middle  of  November  :  "  It  would 
be  an  unspeakable  satisfaction  to  see  you  here,  but  I 
would  rather  be  denied  it  than  you  should  be  too 
much  incommoded.  I  believe  the  small-pox  will  die 
away  again,  though  perhaps  never  be  quite  gone. 
It  would  be  one  of  the  greatest  satisfactions  in  life 
to  me  to  have  you  well  through  it  by  inoculation, 
from  which  there  are  so  good  hopes  that  I  should 
not  care  to  oppose  it,  if  you  think  it  best  to  under- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  255 

take  it,  and  yet  I  dare  not  urge  you  to  it,  but  would 
leave  it  to  Providence  and  the  dispositions  of  your 
own  mind.  It  is  indeed  a  wretched  embarrassment 
to  me  in  my  present  situation ;  so  that  if  your  case 
was  as  mine  is,  I  should  be  almost  ready  to  even  ad 
vise  you  to  it,  and  did  I  not  think  of  retiring  for 
good  and  all  when  it  becomes  general  again,  if  I 
should  live  to  it,  1  should  be  almost  resolved  to  run 
the  risk  of  it  yet." 

A  few  days  before  Christmas,  when  he  was  expect 
ing  a  visit  from  his  son,  which  the  illness  of  his  wife 
prevented,  he  wrote  him  again,  a  brief  note  in  which 
were  the  words:  "I  hope  by  your  account  you 
are  in  no  danger  of  the  small-pox,  as  perhaps  you 
would  have  been  had  you  been  here  and  gone  much 
about,  for  there  is  a  good  deal  of  it  about  town.  On 
which  account  I  have  been  out  only  at  Church  and 
Mr.  Barclay's  these  three  or  four  weeks.  Thank  God, 
I  continue  in  perfect  health,  and  hope  with  this  care 
I  am  in  no  danger." 

The  friends  of  the  Institution  were  anxious  to  con 
tinue  him  at  its  head,  and  saw  the  importance  of 
keeping  him  on  the  spot  now  that  an  effort  was  about 
to  be  made  to  renew  the  application  for  contributions 
from  abroad.  The  times  appeared  more  auspicious. 
The  King  of  Great  Britain  had  died  suddenly  on  the 
25th  of  October,  1760,  and  his  grandson,  George 
III.,  ascended  the  throne  in  the  twenty-third  year  of 
his  age,  a  sovereign  of  religious  impulses  and  un 
spotted  reputation.  "  The  young  king  begins  his 
reign,  you  see,"  wrote  Johnson  to  his  son,  referring 
him  to  the  public  prints,  "  with  a  glorious  proclama 
tion  in  favor  of  religion  and  virtue,  —  the  like  to 


256  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

which  I  believe  has  not  been  before,  unless  in  Queen 
Anne's  reign." 

The  Episcopal  clergy  in  this  country  transmitted  ad 
dresses  to  him  upon  his  accession,  but  that  of  the 
clergy  in  and  near  Boston  was  not  presented  to  him, 
because  it  was  thought  to  mention  Bishops  prema 
turely.  "  This  is  a  matter,"  wrote  Seeker  to  John 
son,  "  of  which  you  in  America  cannot  judge  ;  and 
therefore  I  beg  you  will  attempt  nothing  without  the 
advice  of  the  Society  or  of  the  Bishops."  He  had 
written  to  his  Grace,  and  with  the  advice  of  some 
of  his  clerical  brethren,  humbly  suggested  to  him, 
whether  there  would  not  be  good  reason  to  hope 
from  the  declarations  of  the  young  king  that  upon  the 
commencement  of  a  peace  he  might  be  prevailed  upon 
to  settle  Episcopacy  in  America,  and  whether  the 
draught  of  an  address  to  his  Majesty  something  like 
the  one  which  he  inclosed,  would  not  be  expedient 
and  contribute  to  this  end. 

The  Governors  of  the  College  took  occasion  to  add 
their  congratulations  in  a  formal  way,  and  to  mani 
fest  their  loyalty  as  dutiful  subjects  of  the  youthful 
sovereign.  Johnson  was  the  author  of  this  address, 
as  he  was  of  that  which  went  from  the  clergy  of  New 
York,  and  the  two  neighboring  provinces,  but  it  does 
not  seem  to  have  awakened  any  new  interest  in  be 
half  of  his  plans,  and  probably  it  was  too  soon  after 
the  coronation,  to  hope  for  benefits  or  changes.  The 
most  that  it  could  do  may  have  been  to  lead  the  King 
to  inquire  concerning  the  signers,  and,  as  Seeker  sug 
gested,  "  express  himself  in  relation  to  them." 

In  the  autumn  of  1760  he  published  a  discourse 
entitled  :  "A  demonstration  of  the  Reasonableness, 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  257 

Usefulness,  and  great  Duty  of  Prayer/'  which  he  ded 
icated  to  Jeffery  Amherst,  Major-general  and  Com 
mander-in-chief  of  all  his  Majesty's  forces  in  North 
America.  The  dedication  was  a  graceful  compliment 
to  him  for  the  "  glorious  success  "  which  had  attended 
his  conduct  in  the  reduction  of  Canada,  "  an  event/' 
he  added,  "  of  immortal  renown,  and  a  signal  reward 
of  your  piety  and  virtue."  The  discourse  was  writ 
ten  at  the  earnest  request  of  a  person  of  note,  who 
put  into  his  hands  a  manuscript,  undertaking  to 
prove  by  reason,  that  Prayer,  since  it  implies  a  pe 
tition  to  God  to  supply  any  wants  of  ours,  is  in  effect, 
"  an  utterly  impertinent  and  insignificant  thing,  and 
but  a  mere  useless  ceremony."  Appended  to  it,  was  a 
letter  to  a  friend  in  West  Chester,  relating  to  the  same 
subject,  with  whom  he  had  expostulated  for  not  fre 
quenting  the  public  worship  as  usual,  and  whose  ab 
sences  sprung  not  so  much  from  indifference,  as  from 
doubts  and  infidel  speculations.  He  closed  it  in  words 
as  applicable  to  men  of  the  present  day,  as  to  skep 
tics  who  lived  a  century  ago. 

I  am  grieved  to  hear  you  complain  of  endless  doubts  and 
perplexities  in  matters  of  religion,  for  it  is  indeed  a  miserable 
state  to  be  worried  with  a  spirit  of  skepticism,  and  dark  sus 
picions  and  surmises  about  this,  and  that,  and  the  other. 
Nubila  mem  est  Tioec  ubi  regnant.  "  It  is  a  cloudy,  doleful 
state  of  mind  where  these  prevail."  Pray  sit  down  then  and 
carefully  distinguish  and  separate  things  certain  from  things 
doubtful,  and  abide  by  them,  and  give  the  doubts  to  the  winds  ; 
but  never  doubt  whether  you  ought  diligently  to  attend  on  the 
public  service  of  God.  Attend,  I  say,  in  the  first  place,  and 
above  all  things,  to  plain,  evident,  practical  matters,  and  es 
pecially  live  in  the  constant  regular  practice  of  true  devotion 
towards  God  in  Christ,  who  is  our  only  Supreme  Good ;  and 


17 


258  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

trouble  not  your  head  with  curious  disputes  and  speculations, 
and  perplexing  doubts  and  intricacies,  many  of  which  are 
only  strifes  about  words,  and  others  about  things  we  have 
no  concern  with,  and  things  quite  beyond  our  faculties. 

I  will  only  add,  that  I  am  fully  persuaded  when  you  come 
to  leave  this  world,  it  will  be  the  greatest  satisfaction  to  you, 
to  be  able  to  say  with  the  royal  Psalmist,  "  Lord,  I  have 
loved  the  habitation  of  thy  house,  and  the  place  where 
thine  honor  dwelleth."  I  hope,  therefore,  you  will  this  once 
excuse  this  long  letter  from  a  faithful  friend,  who  is  solici 
tously  concerned  for  your  best  good,  and  I  commend  you 
to  God's  protection,  conduct,  and  blessing. 

To  confirm  the  truth  of  his  words,  and  give  force 
to  his  reasoning,  he  subjoined  a  sententious  extract 
from  a  sermon  of  his  venerated  friend  Dr.  Seeker, 
the  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  "  There  must  be  pub 
lic  virtue,  or  government  cannot  stand  ;  there  must 
be  private  virtue,  or  there  cannot  be  public ;  there 
must  be  religion,  or  there  can  be  neither ;  there 
must  be  true  religion,  or  there  will  be  false.  There 
must  be  attendance  on  God's  worship,  or  there  will 
be  no  religion  at  all." 

This  publication  was  followed  by  happy  effects,  and 
several  months  after  he  printed  as  a  sequel  to  it  a  ser 
mon,  "  On  the  Beauty  of  Holiness  in  the  Worship  of 
the  Church  of  England,"  which  he  recommended  to 
the  attention  of  the  good  people  of  New  England, 
and  particularly  of  his  former  parishioners  at  Strat 
ford  and  West  Chester.  It  was  a  temperate  defense 
of  the  Liturgy,  and  aimed  to  "  show  that  in  the  Church 
of  England  we  do  most  truly  worship  Almighty  God. 
that  our  worship  is  a  most  holy  worship,  and  tends  to 
promote  holiness  in  the  best  manner,  and  that  it  is  a 
most  beautiful  worship,  and  is  truly  worshipping  God 
in  the  beauty  of  holiness." 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  259 

A  passage  under  the  last  head,  though  somewhat 
quaint  in  its  phraseology,  may  be  cited  as  an  example 
of  the  spirit  of  the  whole  discourse  :  — 

Our  worship  is  truly  beautiful  in  its  language,  which  is 
very  weighty  and  expressive.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  granted 
that  in  a  few  passages,  it  may  be  capable  of  some  improve 
ments,  but  in  general  this  must  be  allowed  to  be  the  char 
acter  of  its  language,  that  it  carrieth  a  great  force  and  weight 
with  it,  without  either  deficiency  or  redundancy,  and  is  in 
the  happy  medium  between  an  affectation  of  verbosity,  and 
high  flown  figures,  on  the  one  hand,  and  obscurity  and  dull 
ness,  and  a  low  vulgar  meanness  of  expression  on  the  other, 
It  hath  a  grandeur  and  majesty  in  it,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
a  most  easy,  natural,  intelligible  simplicity  ;  always  fitted 
to  the  weight  and  importance  of  the  matter,  and  the  capac 
ities  of  the  whole  body  of  worshippers.  If  it  savors  of  an 
tiquity,  and  on  that  account  be  thought  not  so  polite  to 
modern  ears,  yet  this  very  thing  giveth  it  an  air  of  the 
greater  gravity  and  importance,  and  there  are  but  very 
few  expressions  that  are  at  all  the  less  intelligible,  though 
it  is  nigh  two  hundred  years  old  ;  and  it  adds  much  to  its 
beauty,  that  it  is  expressed  as  far  as  it  could  well  be,  in  the 
very  language  of  Scripture,  being  an  excellent  collection  from 
the  very  Word  of  God,  which  is  ever  full  of  majesty  and 
grandeur.  And  as  there  cannot  be  a  more  decent  and  beau 
tiful  sight  than  to  behold  a  great  number  of  intelligent 
beings,  the  creatures  and  children  of  God,  jointly  conspiring 
to  do  all  the  honor  they  can  to  Him  their  common  parent,  in 
their  united  adoration  of  Him,  so  there  is  the  greatest  pro 
priety  and  fitness  in  it,  and  consequently  the  greatest  beauty 
that  they  should  worship  their  heavenly  Father  in  his  own 
language,  in  the  words  which  He  hath  put  into  their  mouths. 
If,  therefore,  we  love  the  Scriptures,  we  cannot  fail  to  love 
the  worship  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  is  for  the  most 
part  taken  from  them,  and  entirely  conformed  to  them. 

But  it  adds  to  the  beauty  of  our  excellent   Liturgy,  that 


260  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

there  is  an  admirable  proportion  in  all  its  parts ;  insomuch 
that  no  one  part  is  so  swelled  or  enlarged  beyond  its  meas 
ure,  as  to  jostle  out  or  starve  another.  There  is  a  just  pro 
portion  of  Devotions  and  Lessons,  of  Prayers  and  Praises, 
of  Confessions  and  Deprecations,  of  Supplications  and  In 
tercessions,  of  Petitions  and  Thanksgivings  for  ourselves  and 
for  all  men,  for  kings,  and  all  that  are  in  authority,  and  for 
all  orders  and  conditions  of  men.  And  as  all  these  parts  of 
worship,  without  deficiency  or  redundancy,  are  thus  so  ex 
quisitely  fitted  and  proportioned  one  to  the  other,  so  they  all 
aim  at  one  end,  to  which  they  are  no  less  aptly  fitted  and 
proportioned,  namely,  to  advance  the  honor  of  God  and  the 
general  benefit  of  mankind,  and  to  promote  universal  holi 
ness  and  righteousness  among  them,  all  which  considerations 
abundantly  speak  their  harmony  and  beauty. 

And  this  beauty  is  further  mightily  improved  by  that 
grateful  variety  that  appears  among  them,  which  renders  our 
Liturgy  like  a  beautiful  garden,  wherein  there  is  a  delightful 
variety  of  luxuriant  nature  intermixed  with  curious  art,  of 
other  various  plants  with  trees ;  of  fruits  with  flowers  of  di 
vers  sorts,  all  ranged  in  a  various  and  beautiful  order.  In 
like  manner,  in  our  Liturgy,  devotions  are  gratefully  inter 
mixed  with  lessons,  and  prayers  with  praises.  The  people's 
part  is  generally  intermixed  with  the  minister's,  and  short 
responses,  in  the  form  of  ejaculations,  with  set  and  continued 
prayers,  in  which  there  is  an  agreeable  variety,  and  the 
prayers  are  each  of  them  short,  in  imitation  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer ;  and  there  is  a  correspondent  variety  of  actions  of 
the  body,  suited  to  this  variety  of  the  exercises  of  the  mind  ; 
all  wisely  contrived  to  keep  the  congregations  wakeful,  lively, 
and  attentive.  This  method  is  therefore  vastly  preferable  to 
one  tedious,  long-continued  prayer,  without  any  variety,  as  is 
the  case  with  our  neighbors,  in  which  the  people's  attention 
flags,  and  they  grow  dull  and  heavy,  and  the  force  of  their 
devotion  is  extremely  weakened.  On  which  account  nothing 
should  tempt  me  to  exchange  our  beautiful  variety  of  short 
devotions,  for  their  long,  dull,  and  unvaried  performances. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  261 

For  such  is  our  frailty  at  best,  that  we  need  all  the  wise 
precautions  imaginable  to  be  used  to  keep  our  minds  vigor 
ous,  wakeful,  and  attentive,  both  by  a  variety  of  devo 
tions  and  of  bodily  worship,  which  is  the  true  intent  of  all 
that  beautiful  variety  wherewith  our  worship  is  attended,  and 
which,  in  proportion  as  it  attains  those  ends,  may  be  truly 
styled  the  beauty  of  holiness.1 

An  experience  of  nearly  forty  years  had  strength 
ened  his  love  for  these  forms  and  given  him  an  oppor 
tunity  to  test  their  value.  From  time  to  time  he  had 
seen  in  them  fresh  beauties,  and  the  testimony  which 
he  bore  to  their  excellence,  in  the  evening  of  his  days, 
was  a  proof  that  no  trials,  and  hatreds,  and  adversities, 
had  made  him  regret  the  step  which  he  took  when  he 
broke  away  from  the  popular  faith  of  New  England. 
He  felt  that  he  was  one  in  sympathy  and  fellowship 
with  a  great  branch  of  the  Church  universal.  "  In  the 
use  of  the  Liturgy,"  said  he,  "I  am  offering  up  not 
the  devotions  of  this  or  that  assembly  only,  much  less 
of  this  or  that  particular  person  or  minister,  but  the 
prayers  and  praises  of  the  whole  English  Church  and 
nation,  enjoined  by  lawful  authority,  and  which  every 
assembly  is  jointly  offering  up  at  the  same  time.  And 
moreover,  that  I  find  I  am  worshipping  God  accord 
ing  to  the  ancient  Scripture  method,  wherein  it  was 
the  manner  for  all  the  people  to  lift  up  their  voice 
with  one  accord,  not  only  in  singing,  but  in  saying 
their  devotions." 

The  sermon  from  which  these  portions  are  taken 
is  closed  with  an  earnest  appeal  to  churchmen  to 
adorn  the  religion  they  professed,  by  the  "  exemplary 
holiness"  of  their  behavior.  "We  have  lately  had," 
are  his  words,  "  an  adversary  [Mr.  Noah  Hobart]  who 

i  Pages  20-22. 


262  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

pretends  to  show  as  an  argument  against  us,  that 
where  the  Church  prevails,  all  manner  of  wickedness 
'prevails."  It  was  a  groundless  and  abusive  reproach, 
and  he  would  have  them  confute  it  by  living  lives 
answerable  to  the  mighty  obligations  their  worship 
laid  them  under.  A  wicked  churchman,  in  his  judg 
ment,  was  the  most  inexcusable  of  all  creatures. 
Much  as  he  loved  the  Liturgy,  he  was  far  more  desir 
ous  that  they  who  adopted  it  should  be  true  to  its 
teachings,  and  firmly  resolved  to  bring  forth  those 
fruits  of  holiness  whereby  our  Heavenly  Father  may 
be  glorified. 

Since  the  death  of  his  wife  and  daughter,  he  had 
lived  very  much  alone,  and  been  little  concerned 
about  his  domestic  affairs.  But  they  appeared  to  be 
suffering  at  this  time  "  for  want  of  a  careful  and  dis 
interested  housekeeper,"  and  he  began  to  turn  over 
in  his  mind  what  he  had  thought  of  before,  but  dis 
missed  without  coming  to  a  final  decision.  The  fol 
lowing  letter  to  his  son  will  explain  his  views  and 
feelings  in  regard  to  a  second  marriage  :  — 

K.  C.,  N.  Y.,  February  16,  1761. 

DEAREST  SON,  —  We  cannot  be  sufficiently  thankful  that 
our  health  is  so  graciously  continued,  both  yours  and  mine. 
Mine,  I  think,  was  never  better,  notwithstanding  my  confine 
ment.  For  exercise  I  run  frequently  up  garret,  besides  walk 
ing  a  great  deal  the  length  of  my  two  rooms,  by  which  I 
tire  myself  at  least  once  a  day  ;  which  with  five  recitations 
^lectures  we  call  them),  two  of  which  are  equal  to  two  ser 
mons,  seem  exercise  enough  to  answer  the  end.  Indeed,  I 
am  obliged  to  live  very  laboriously. 

I  thank  you  for  explaining  yourself  so  fully  on  the  subject 
I  mentioned,  and  with  so  much  tenderness  and  filial  affection, 
and  I  may  add  with  much  propriety  and  accuracy,  consider- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  263 

ing  your  hurry  and  interruption.  I  was  always  with  you, 
against  second  matches,  especially  in  advanced  years,  for  the 
reason  you  mention,  on  which  account  I  bless  myself  a 
thousand  times  that  I  came  off  so  well  from  my  former  views, 
which  gave  me  great  uneasiness  on  your  account ;  and  be 
sure  I  should  never  have  thought  of  such  a  thing  again, 
but  in  the  present  case,  which  can  scarce  possibly  be  at 
tended  with  those  ill  consequences.  Indeed,  it  seems  yery 
ridiculous,  and  I  am  really  ashamed  of  the  thoughts  of  mat 
rimony  at  this  time  of  day ;  but  in  truth  it  seems  so  doleful 
in  old  age  to  be  destitute  of  a  contemporary  companion,  that 
I  am  almost  apt  to  think  a  man  never  wants  one  more,  and 
that  if  he  has  a  good  one  in  his  younger  years,  there  is  noth 
ing  in  life  he  needs  more  earnestly  to  pray  for  than  her 
continuance  to  the  last.  On  these  accounts,  I  don't  know 
(since  you  approve  of  it,  and  I  cannot  for  two  or  three  years 
at  least  if  I  live,  leave  this  station)  but  that  I  had  best  think 
of  it  in  earnest.  I  should  hardly  come  this  spring,  if  it 
were  not  on  this  account,  but  if  my  life  and  health  continue, 
I  believe  I  shall  go  about  the  middle  of  May,  if  there  is 
like  to  be  an  opportunity,  or  perhaps  not  till  June,  accord 
ing  as  Commencement  is.  I  doubt  the  difficulty  will  be  to 
have  a  vessel  ready  immediately  after  Commencement. 

I  have  got  "  Smollett,"  and  with  you  do  not  quite  like 
him.  I  fear  he  has  no  religion.  Methinks  he  writes  some 
times  with  a  fleer.  I  am  told  he  has  written  so  freely  about 
Lord  Anson  that  he  has  prosecuted  him  and  put  him  in  jail. 
I  believe  there  is  but  one  volume  of  the  continuation  of  it 
published.  I  shall  send  it  when  there  is  opportunity.  I 
had  another  volume  of  sermons  for  a  vehicle  to  this  letter. 
With  my  love  to  Mrs.  Beach  and  to  you  all,  I  remain, 
Your  most  affectionate  father  and  friend, 

S.  JOHNSON. 

The  practice  of  interchanging  thoughts  on  the  sub 
ject  of  their  readings  had  been  observed  for  a  long 
time,  and  must  have  been  as  pleasant  as  it  was  profit- 


264  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

able.  Scarcely  any  new  and  important  work  upon 
theology,  history,  philosophy,  or  literature,  made  its 
appearance  in  England,  which  the  father  did  not 
speedily  procure,  and  possess  himself  of  its  contents 
before  sending  it  to  his  son.  In  this  way  they  bene 
fited  each  other,  and  sharpened  their  moral  and  crit 
ical  judgments.  It  was  a  period  when  the  books 
published,  especially  those  commanding  attention, 
were  not  so  numerous  but  that  a  diligent  reader  could 
easily  find  time  to  peruse  them  and  weigh  well  their 
merits  and  tendencies.  Johnson  had  a  great  dislike 
for  any  author  who  seemed  to  sneer  at  the  Christian 
religion.  He  had  no  patience  with  infidels  and  scoff 
ers,  and  believed  Christianity  to  be  not  only  the 
anchor  of  the  soul  and  the  safeguard  of  society,  but 
the  sublimest  philosophy. 

This  feeling  will  account  for  his  distrust  of  Smollett. 
"  Infidelity "  said  Bishop  Watson,  in  his  reply  to 
Thomas  Paine,  "  is  a  rank  weed,  it  threatens  to  over 
spread  the  land  ;  its  root  is  principally  fixed  amongst 
the  great  and  opulent,  —  but  you  are  endeavoring  to 
extend  the  malignity  of  its  poison  through  ah1  the 
classes  of  the  community."  *  It  was  a  fear  of  this  kind 
which  made  Johnson  so  careful  to  watch  against  the 
contaminating  influence  of  irreligion.  He  would 
have  the  rising  generation,  —  the  merchants,  manu 
facturers,  and  tradesmen  of  the  British  realm,  pre 
served  from  the  delusions  of  unbelief,  and  continued 
in  that  faith  which  is  the  foundation  of  happiness  in 
this  world,  and  of  the  hope  of  glory  in  another. 

i  Apology  /or  the  Bible,  p.  176,  American  Ed. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  265 


Library 

CHAPTER  XI. 


FOURTH  COMMENCEMENT  ;  SECOND  MARRIAGE  ;  BENEFACTIONS  TO 
THE  COLLEGE;  DR.  JAY  AUTHORIZED  TO  MAKE  COLLECTIONS 

IN    ENGLAND  ;    ARRIVAL    OF   REV.    MYLES    COOPER  ;     RELIGIOUS 
CONTROVERSY  ;    AND    FOREIGN    CORRESPONDENCE. 

A.  D.  1761-1763. 

AT  the  fourth  Commencement  of  King's  College, 
which  was  held  June  3,  1761,  the  first  Bachelors  pro 
ceeded  to  their  second  degree.  Several  graduates  of 
other  colleges  were  admitted  at  the  same  time  to  a 
like  honor,  and  pains  were  taken  to  make  friends  for 
the  institution  among  Episcopalians  outside  of  New 
York.  Johnson  was  now  more  hopeful  than  ever  of 
its  growth,  and  felt  that  its  great  want  was  the  want 
of  additional  funds  to  continue  its  operations  and  ex 
tend  the  course  of  instruction.  He  needed  both  a 
tutor  and  a  professor  to  aid  him  in  his  labors,  and  his 
correspondence  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
had  led  him  to  anticipate  that  one  or  the  other  might 
ere  long  come  from  England,  and  be  found  fit  event 
ually  to  succeed  to  his  responsibilities. 

Immediately  after  this  fourth  Commencement,  he 
proceeded  to  Stratford  in  a  sailing  vessel,  and  was 
there  married  on  the  18th  of  June  to  Mrs.  Sarah 
Beach,  widow  of  his  old  friend  and  parishioner,  Wil 
liam  Beach,  and  mother  of  his  son's  wife.  At  the 
close  of  the  vacation,  he  embarked  with  her  for  New 
York,  and  earnestly  applied  himself  again  to  his 


266  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

duties  in  the  College.  Failing  to  procure  assistance 
from  England,  the  Governors  appointed  Mr.  Robert 
Harpur,  a  gentleman  who  had  been  educated  at  the 
University  of  Glasgow,  and  was  well  qualified  to  be 
Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy, 
and  with  his  help,  he  had  an  easier  time  than  in  the 
preceding  year,  and  the  class.es  were  more  thoroughly 
instructed.  Nothing  occurred  to  disturb  the  even 
tenor  of  his  course  during  the  ensuing  winter.  His 
domestic  affairs  were  every  way  agreeable,  and  he 
wrote  his  son  in  October  that  he  "  never  was  happier 
in  his  life  than  now."  What  added  greatly  to  his  pleas 
ure,  as  he  himself  said,  was  :  "  That  Providence  has 
sent  us  a  good  teacher  of  Mathematics  and  Experi 
ments  from  Ireland,  bred  at  Glasgow,"  and  the  scholars 
were  so  charmed  with  him  that  he  could  not  refrain 
from  expressing  his  belief  that  the  Institution  was 
thus  to  receive  a  fresh  impulse. 

The  increase  of  its  funds  was  another  stimulus  to 
its  prosperity.  Those  obtained  to  complete  the  build 
ing  and  provide  for  immediate  necessities  were  al 
ready  exhausted,  and  the  Governors  were  beginning 
to  spend  a  portion  of  their  capital  to  carry  on  the 
Institution.  Besides  the  sums  early  secured,  and  the 
donation  from  the  venerable  Society  of  five  hundred 
pounds,  a  benevolent  gentleman,  Mr.  Joseph  Mur 
ray,  had  bequeathed  his  estate  to  the  College, 
amounting  to  six  or  seven  thousand  pounds.  But 
more  was  needed,  and  Dr.  Johnson  renewed  his  pro 
posal  to  solicit  a  collection  in  England,  and  prepared 
the  way  for  it  by  writing  to  his  friends  and  asking 
their  good  offices.  In  a  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  dated  January  6,  1762,  after  referring  to 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  267 

his  agency  in  procuring  a  suitable  person  for  vice- 
president  and  to  succeed  him  in  case  of  his  decease 
or  resignation,  he  said,  "  Notwithstanding  the  excep 
tion  made  to  his  age,  and  the  uncertainty  whether 
he  will  answer  as  a  preacher,  he  is  desired,  if  he  is 
willing,  to  come  upon  the  terms,  and  with  the  views 
mentioned  in  our  letters  to  your  Grace.  But  as  we 
have  already  been  providentially  provided  for  with 
an  ingenious  young  gentleman,  one  Mr.  Harpur,  bred 
at  Glasgow,  who  does  very  well  in  teaching  Mathe 
matics  and  Experimental  Philosophy,  Mr.  Cooper 
will  not  need  to  bring  one  with  him  for  that  pur 
pose.  But  the  great  difficulty  is  how  to  support 
these  salaries  which  our  stock  cannot  long  do,  un 
less  we  can  by  some  means  get  an  addition  to  it,  and 
we  see  no  way  for  this  but  by  getting  forward  a  sub 
scription  in  England,  and  we  have  not  yet  any  one 
here  to  go  home  on  purpose  to  solicit  one.  So  that 
unless  some  public  spirited  gentleman  there  would 
be  so  good  as  to  undertake  it,  I  see  not  what  to  do, 
though  indeed  I  cannot  excuse  ourselves  of  too  much 
indolence  and  inattention  to  the  interests  of  the 
College." 

A  month  before  this  he  had  written  to  Mr.  Home 
of  Oxford,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Norwich,  and  author 
of  the  "  Commentary  on  the  Psalms,"  and  sent  the 
letter  by  a  graduate  of  Yale  College  who  went  to 
England,  recommended  to  the  Society  and  the  Bishop 
of  London  as  a  worthy  candidate  for  Holy  Orders  and 
a  Mission.  After  thanking  him  for  the  kindness  he 
had  shown  to  his  deceased  son,  and  mentioning  fa 
vorably  what  he  was  pleased  to  call  his  "  admirable 
state  of  the  case  between  Sir  Isaac  and  Mr.  Hutchin- 
son,"  Johnson  said  :  — 


2G8  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

I  thought  I  would,  though  thus  late,  presume  to  trouble 
you.  with  a  few  lines,  to  express  my  earnest  wishes  that  some 
of  you  (and  I  hope  you  are  about  it),  would  give  the  world 
an  entire  methodical  system  of  that  sacred  philosophy  and 
theology  in  the  same  candid  way  to  the  best  advantage.  1 
say  this  because,  though  Mr.  Hutchinson's  Discourses,  on  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  are  admirable,  yet  his  way  of  writing  is 
obscure  and  disagreeable,  which  together  with  his  asperity 
of  temper  and  expression,  has  been  I  believe,  the  cliief,  if 
not  the  only  reason  that  his  extraordinary  works  have  been 
no  more  read  and  considered  and  so  generally  thrown  by 
with  contempt  in  this  conceited  and  inattentive  age.  May  I 
not  hope  that  this  is  doing  and  will  soon  be  done. 

I  have  written  several  times  to  good  Mr.  Berkeley,  but 
whether  my  letters  or  his  miscarry,  or  his  leaving  Oxford 
be  the  occasion,  I  have  heard  nothing  from  him  these  five 
years.  If  you  ever  see  or  correspond  with  him  please  to  give 
my  most  affectionate  service  to  him. 

I  have  heard  a  rumor  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Patten  has  lately 
published  some  excellent  performance,  but  cannot  hear  what 
it  is.  I  shall  be  much  obliged  to  you  to  make  my  humblest 
compliments  acceptable  to  him,  whose  excellent  sermons  as 
well  as  yours  are  much  admired  here. 

It  is  uncertain  whether  the  worthy  youth,  Mr.  Treadwell, 
who  carries  this  letter,  will  see  Oxford.  If  he  should  I  beg 
your  kind  notice  of  him.  My  College,  I  thank  God,  is  now 
in  a  pretty  flourishing  condition,  and  the  building  finished, 
only  we  want  a  fund  to  support  sufficient  officers. 

I  am,  Reverend  Sir,  with  great  esteem, 

Your  most  affectionate  obliged  humble  servant, 

S.  J. 

He  dispatched  a  brief  note  to  his  old  friend  Dr. 
Astry  by  the  same  gentleman,  "  who/'  he  said,  "  will 
give  you  some  account  of  the  Church  and  of  my  Col 
lege,  and  my  labors  and  hopeful  prospect  of  laying  a 


OF   SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  269 

good  foundation  for  posterity.  I  pray,  God  be  your 
staff,  your  support  and  your  comfort  in  your  declining 
years,  and  your  exceeding  great  reward  in  a  better 
world." 

Letters  of  this  sort  served  as  an  introduction  to 
the  movement  which  was  in  contemplation.  An  op 
portunity  soon  offered  of  soliciting  subscriptions  in 
England  through  the  agency  of  Dr.  James  Jay ;  and 
the  President  of  the  College  urged  the  Governors  to 
accept  his  services  and  furnish  him  not  only  with  the 
requisite  authority,  but  with  suitable  addresses  to  the 
king,  the  two  Archbishops,  the  Universities  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  and  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts.  All  seemed  ready  to 
acquiesce  in  the  proposal,  and  Dr.  Jay  was  formally 
appointed  ;  and  took  his  departure  from  New  York  on 
the  12th  of  May,  1762.  Of  the  letters  and  addresses 
put  into  his  hand,  which  were  all  prepared  by  John 
son,  it  will  be  enough  to  select  the  one  written  to 
Archbishop  Seeker  :  — 

To  THE  MOST  REV.  FATHER  IN  GOD,  THOMAS,  LORD  ARCHBISHOP  OP 
CANTERBURY. 

May  it  please  your  Grace,  —  Your  Grace  is  well  acquainted 
with  the  labors  and  difficulties  under  which  we  have  strug 
gled  in  founding  our  College  and  carrying  it  on  hitherto  ; 
and  has  been  informed  that  we  have  erected  an  elegant 
building  of  one  hundred  eighty  feet  in  length  by  thirty  in 
width  and  three  stories  in  height,  which  is  now  just  finished 
and  designed  for  one  side  of  a  quadrangle  to  be  completed 
as  we  shall  be  enabled.  But  as  we  are  not  yet  able  to  carry 
it  any  farther  without  assistance,  nor  have  we  a  sufficient 
fund  to  support  the  necessary  officers —  the  Master,  Profes 
sors,  and  Tutors,  —  we  are  therefore  constrained  to  beg  the 


270  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

charitable  contributions  of  such  public  spirited  gentlemen  as 
are  generously  disposed  to  promote  so  good  a  work,  and  have 
empowered  the  bearer  hereof,  Dr.  James  Jay  of  this  city, 
who  is  an  ingenious  young  gentleman,  and  a  graduated  phy 
sician  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  to  ask  and  receive 
such  benefactions  as  shall  be  contributed  to  this  important 
undertaking. 

And  as  your  Grace  is  the  first  member  of  our  corporation 
and  has  given  abundant  demonstration  of  your  delight  in 
doing  good  offices,  and  especially  to  this  College,  for  which 
we  are  inexpressibly  thankful,  we  humbly  beg  leave  to  rec 
ommend  him  to  your  Grace,  and  entreat  you  in  addition 
to  your  former  goodness  that  you  will  give  him  your  best 
advice  and  direction  for  his  carrying  on  a  solicitation  for 
benefactions ;  and  if  you  think  proper,  that  you  will  intro 
duce  him,  or  procure  him  introduced  to  our  most  gracious 
Sovereign  for  his  favor  ;  and  also  that  you  will  be  pleased  to 
recommend  him  to  his  Grace,  the  Lord  Archbishop  of  York 
and  the  Bishop  of  London,  or  any  other  of  the  nobility, 
clergy,  or  gentry  as  your  Grace  shall  judge  most  expedient. 
In  doing  which  you  will  unspeakably  oblige,  may  it  please 
your  Grace,  Your  Grace's,  etc. 

On  his  arrival  in  England,  Dr.  Jay  found  a  com 
petitor  for  British  charities  in  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith, 
Provost  of  the  College  in  Philadelphia.  He  had  pre 
ceded  him  to  London  and  was  engaged  in  soliciting 
subscriptions  for  his  own  institution.  The  Archbishop, 
who  had  warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  King's  Col 
lege,  feeling  that  separate  collections  at  the  same 
time  would  injure  the  claims  of  each,  thought  it  would 
be  best  to  unite  them,  and  apply  to  the  king  for  a 
brief  to  go  through  the  kingdom  in  favor  of  both. 
This  was  accordingly  done,  and  the  proceeds  were  di 
vided  equally  between  the  two  institutions,  except  that 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  271 

a  donation  from  his  Majesty  of  six  hundred  pounds  to 
the  College  in  New  York  was  adjudged  to  be  not  in 
cluded  in  the  general  collection.  The  joint  contri 
butions  yielded  to  King's  College  the  net  sum  of 
nearly  six  thousand  pounds  sterling,  which,  with  the 
legacy  of  Mr.  Murray  and  other  donations,  constituted 
for  the  time  a  sufficient  endowment.  The  son  of 
Bishop  Berkeley  generously  contributed  ten  guineas, 
and  in  answering  Johnson's  letter  by  Dr.  Jay,  said, 
"  It  gave  great  delight  to  my  worthy  mother,  now  at 
my  house,  to  hear  that  you  enjoyed  your  health  and 
spirits;  she  bears  a  most  sincere  good  will  to  that 
quarter  of  the  world  where  your 'acquaintance  witk 
her  took  its  rise." 

The  Governors  were  now  enabled  to  furnish  the 
assistance  which  had  long  been  desired,  and  the  Rev. 
Myles  Cooper,  the  young  Oxford  graduate,  whom  the 
Archbishop  had  recommended  as  being  well  qualified 
to  take  part  in  the  management  of  the  College, 
came  over  to  this  country  in  the  autumn  of  1762, 
and  was  welcomed  by  the  President,  and  immediately 
appointed  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy.  He  proved 
equal  to  the  duties  of  the  position,  in  spite  of  the 
objection  which  had  been  raised  against  him  that  he 
was  too  young ;  and  Johnson  looked  forward  with  sat 
isfaction  to  the  day  when  he  himself  would  be  allowed 
to  retire.  He  worked  zealously  with  his  new  officer, 
and  sought  in  judicious  ways  to  prepare  him  for  the 
assumption  of  his  own  responsibilities,  not  expect 
ing,  however,  that  a  Providential  event  would  lead 
him  so  soon  to  sever  his  connection  with  the  College. 

Absorbed  as  he  was  at  this  time  in  matters  of 
education,  he  did  not  forget  the  Church,  or  cease  to 


272  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

take  a  lively  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  the  parishes 
in  his  native  colony.  He  longed  to  see  a  better  and 
more  learned  clergy  ;  and  in  a  letter  to  his  son  who 
had  referred  to  the  subject,  he  said,  December,  1762, 
"  What  you  lament  has  occasioned  in  me  many  a  sigh. 
But  how  to  remedy  it  is  the  difficulty.  I  wish  those 
we  have,  had  better  abilities,  more  inclination  to  books 
and  more  zeal ;  and  if  I  am  allowed  to  come  again 
among  you,  I  intend  to  try  to  animate  them,  and  hope 
to  do  some  good.  But  I  doubt  poverty  is  one  chief 
remora,  which  I  cannot  remedy.  But  we  must,  as 
you  say,  take  more  care  to  have  good  candidates  if 
we  can  get  them,  and  not  recommend  poor  ones.  I 
hope  you  may  have  some  good  influence  in  getting  a 
right  choice  for  New  Haven,  which  is  of  much  impor 
tance.  We  have  good  hands  here,  Chandler  and  young 
Seabury,  but  I  can't  get  them  to  write,  nor  indeed  do 
they  know  enough  of  some  affairs  for  this  business, 
but  might  be  informed.  We  must,  as  you  say,  leave  it 
with  God  Almighty,  with  whom  is  the  residue  of  the 
Spirit,  to  raise  up  instruments  to  defend  His  Church 
under  His  protection,  and  I  hope  and  trust  He  will 
not  desert  it." 

He  had  in  his  mind,  while  writing  thus  to  his  son,  a 
pamphlet  which  had  recently  been  published  anony 
mously,  and  circulated  to  the  injury  of  the  Church  of 
England,  especially  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
and  to  which  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had 
called  his  attention,  and  desired  that  it  might  be  an 
swered.  Johnson  fixed  upon  the  Missionary  at  New- 
town  as  the  most  competent  person  to  do  this,  and 
wrote  again  to  his  son,  "  I  shall  be  very  sorry  if  Mr. 
Beach  does  not  answer  that  base  pamphlet.  Tell  Mr. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  273 

Winslow,  let  the  clergy  give  him  no  rest  till  he  is 
persuaded.  I  would  undertake  it  myself  rather  than 
fail,  if  writing  were  not  so  tedious  to  me.  I  fear  how 
the  Church  will  do  when  her  old  champions  are  gone. 
If  he  fails  I  know  of  none  anywhere  equal  to  it.  I 
knew  nothing  before  of  that  Boston  act.  I  wonder 
with  the  Archbishop  none  of  the  Church's  friends 
had  been  earlier  in  their  notice." 

It  was  a  time  of  sharp  theological  controversy.  The 
bitter  hostility  of  the  Independents  to  the  introduc 
tion  of  Bishops  into  this  country,  and  to  the  work  of 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  was 
the  origin  of  the  pamphlet,  and  a  few  of  the  Episcopal 
clergy,  in  view  of  its  ironical  character,  were  inclined 
to  regard  it  as  unworthy  of  the  least  attention.  The 
younger  Johnson,  in  a  letter  to  his  father,  dated  Jan 
uary  7,  1763,  said :  "  Mr.  Beach,  I  am  now  assured, 
is  writing,  as  he  has  sent  to  me  to  procure  an  account 
of  the  settlements  and  salaries  of  some  of  the  Dissent 
ing  ministers ;  and  I  hope  with  you,  he  will  do  it  well. 
I  have  written  him  to  encourage  the  thing  and  to 
suggest  some  few  things.  Mr.  Caner,  it  seems  by  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Winslow,  thinks  the  piece  too  low  and 
scandalous  to  answer  ;  but  I  cannot  agree  with  him. 
As  our  enemies  avail  themselves  so  much  of  it,  I  am 
not  content  to  let  it  pass." 

The  answer  was  prepared  and  submitted  to  the  ex 
amination  of  Dr.  Johnson  through  his  son,  into  whose 
hands  the  manuscript  first  came,  and  he,  after  running 
it  over,  wrote  to  his  father  :  "  I  durst  not  pronounce 
upon  it  from  this  hasty  reading,  and  am  sorry  I  have 
not  more  time  to  consider  it,  but  hope  you  and  Mr. 
Cooper  and  others  there  will  consider  it  carefully  be- 


274  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

fore  it  is  published.  I  fear  it  is  too  severe  in  some 
expressions,  though  they  deserve  it  all."  With  a  few 
words  referring  to  his  own  suggestions,  he  added, 
"  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  well  if  Mr.  Beach  had 
not  so  often  mentioned  Messrs.  Hobart  and  Dickinson 
as  the  authors  of  the  pamphlet,  as  it  is  very  uncertain 
who  they  were,1  though  I  believe  he  is  right,  that  all 
their  clergy  are  pleased  with  it.  You  will  critically 
examine  the  whole.  Notwithstanding  the  opinion  of 
Mr.  Caner,  Mr.  Winslow,  etc.,  an  answer  must  be  pub 
lished  ;  I  think  I  every  day  see  more  and  more  occa 
sion  for  it." 

Dr.  Johnson  had  determined  by  this  time,  to  retire 
from  his  position  in  New  York,  and  was  shaping  his 
plans  with  reference  to  such  a  step.  There  was  some 
prospect  that  Mr.  Winslow  might  be  transferred  to  an 
other  station,  and  an  opportunity  given  for  restoring 
him  to  his  old  parish.  But  if  this  should  not  be  effected, 
his  son  wrote  him  to  have  no  anxiety  about  his  tem 
poral  concerns.  "  Your  determination,"  said  he,  "to 
leave  the  conduct  of  your  affairs  to  me  is  kind  and  does 
me  honor,  but  it  is  too  much,  as  I  am  very  liable  to 
mistake.  Only  be  assured  that  you  will  always  have 
my  best  judgment,  and  that  I  shall  never  think  any 
thing  I  can  do  a  burden,  or  too  much  to  render  your 

1  The  author  was  Mr.  Noah  Welles,  a  Congregational  divine  in  Stamford,  C't. 
The  irony  extended  through  47  octavo  pages,  and  justified  Johnson  in  using  the  ex 
pression  "  base  pamphlet."  The  title  page  ran  thus:  "  The  Real  Advantages  which 
ministers  and  people*  may  enjoy,  especially  in  the  Colonies,  by  conforming  to  the 
Church  of  England  ;  faithfully  considered  and  impartially  represented,  in  a  Letter  to 
a  young  Gentleman,  printed  in  the  year  1762."  It  opened  with  these  words:  "  I  re 
ceived  your's  by  the  worthy  Mr. ,  in  which  you  inform  me  that  pursuant  t<- 

my  advice,  you  went  to  Church  on  Christmas  Day,  and  was  so  greatly  pleased  with 
our  worship  that  you  have  some  thoughts  of  conforming,  and  going  home  for  orders 
next  spring.  You  may  be  sure  this  gave  me  the  greatest  satisfaction,  as  I  am  firmly 
attached  to  the  Apostolic  Church  of  England,  that  great  bulwark  of  the  Reforma 
tion." 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  275 

life  comfortable.  I  know  not  why  it  is  not  equally  a 
duty,  at  least  to  provide  for  parents  as  for  children, 
But  use  your  own  judgment  (of  which  we  have  both 
had  so  long  and  so  good  experience)  with  mine  for  the 
best  means  to  attain  that  end.  Be  not  concerned  for 
me  or  mine  so  as  to  give  yourself  any  uneasiness ;  if 
I  or  they  have  less  fortune,  it  may  be  less  tempta 
tion  to  go  astray,  and  redoubled  diligence  may  make 
amends  for  it.  Those  who  are  not  content  to  be 
diligent  have  no  title  to  the  goods  of  fortune,  and 
those  who  are  really  so,  will  very  seldom  want  a  com 
petency.  If  you  can  stay  there  with  ease,  satisfac 
tion,  honor,  and  credit  I  can  be  content ;  if  not,  do  not 
hesitate  to  retire,  whatever  becomes  of  every  other 
consideration,  for  all  others  are  inferior  to  them. 
Providence  will  not  desert  us." 

A  domestic  affliction  prevented  him  from  giving 
much  attention  to  Mr.  Beach's  pamphlet  before  its 
publication  ;  and  soon  the  minds  of  Churchmen  were 
turned  to  the  controversy  as  renewed  and  carried  on 
in  Boston.  In  1763  appeared  a  vindication  of  the 
Society  by  the  Rev.  East  Apthorp,  entitled  "  Con 
siderations  on  the  Institution  and  Conduct  of  the  So 
ciety  for  the  Propagation  of  the  G-ospel  in  Foreign 
Parts,"  to  which  a  Dissenting  divine,  Dr.  Jonathan 
Mayhew,  replied  in  a  much  thicker  pamphlet,  and 
contended  that  the  managers  were  either  deceived  by 
the  representations  of  their  Missionaries,  or  were  gov 
erned  more  by  a  regard  to  Episcopacy  than  to  the 
interests  of  true  religion.  Replies  and  rejoinders  fol 
lowed,  and  the  republication  in  England  of  Dr.  May- 
hew's  "  Observations  on  the  Charter  and  Conduct  of 
the  Society/'  led  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to 


276  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

prepare  an  answer  and  print  it  that  the  truth  might 
be  known  to  the  British  public.  The  following  letters, 
though  anticipating  a  little  the  chronological  order  of 
events,  will  let  the  reader  into  a  pretty  full  history 
of  the  whole  controversy,  as  well  as  shed  some  light 
on  the  affair  of  American  Bishops  :  — 

GOOD  DR.  JOHNSON,  —  I  heartily  thank  you  for  your  let 
ter  of  August  10,  particularly  for  the  concern  which  you  ex 
press  about  my  health.  It  is  frequently  disordered  ;  but  I 
can  for  the  most  part  pay  some  attention  to  business.  When 
I  fail,  as  I  am  now  within  a  few  days  of  seventy,  an  abler 
person  in  all  respects,  I  hope,  will  succeed  me. 

Mr.  Beach's  book  is  not  come  to  my  hands  ;  I  wish  it  had 
received  your  corrections.  I  am  as  desirous  that  your  an 
swer  to  Dr.  Mayhew  should  be  published,  as  I  can  be  with 
out  having  seen  it ;  because  I  dare  say  it  is  written  with  the 
temper  which  I  told  you  I  wished  Mr.  Beach  might  preserve. 
But  indeed  I  fear  the  world  will  think  we  have  settled  too 
many  missions  in  New  England  and  New  York ;  and  there 
fore  it  may  be  best,  not  absolutely  to  justify,  but  to  excuse 
ourselves  in  that  respect,  as  prevailed  on  by  entreaties  hard  to 
be  resisted,  as  having  many  applications,  and  resolved  to  be 
hereafter  more  sparing  in  the  admission  of  them,  instead  of 
making  it  our  business  to  Episcopize  New  England,  as  Dr. 
Mayhew  expresses  himself.  Our  adversaries  may  be  asked 
whether  they  have  not  made  as  great  mistakes  in  some  points, 
as  we  in  this  ;  and  whether  bitter  invectives  against  them 
would  not  be  unchristian.  There  was  a  company  incorpor- 
porated  by  Car.  2,  in  1661,  for  Propagating  the  Grospel 
amongst  the  heathen  nations  of  New  England  and  the  adjacent 
p,arts,  which  still  subsists,  and  the  affairs  of  it  are  managed 
by  the  Dissenters.  Queen  Anne,  in  1709,  incorporated  The 
Society  in  Scotland  for  Propagating  Christian  Knowledge, 
and  empowered  them  to  propagate  it  not  only  there,  but  in 
Popish  and  infidel  parts  of  the  world.  Accordingly  they  had 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  277 

correspondents  and  Missionaries  in  New  England  above  thirty 
years  ago  ;  and  in  Long  Island,  Pennsylvania,  North  Caro 
lina,  and  Georgia  above  twenty  years  ago  ;  and  probably  they 
have  still.  It  may  be  useful  to  inquire,  whether  these  two 
Societies  have  observed  their  charters  better  than  ours  hath. 
If  not,  their  friends  should  think  and  speak  mildly  of  us. 
The  new  projected  Society  at  Boston  is  about  sinking  itself 
into  the  latter  of  these,  as  I  am  informed.  I  know  nothing 
of  Dr. Barclay's  "  Defence  against  Smith, "nor  of  Aplin  ;  pos 
sibly  this  last  word  was  a  slip  of  your  pen  for  Apthorp. 

What  will  be  done  about  Bishops,  I  cannot  guess.  Appli 
cation  for  them  was  made  to  Lord  Egremont,  who  promised 
to  consult  with  the  other  ministers,  but  died  without  making 
any  report  from  them.  His  successor,  Lord  Halifax,  is  a 
friend  to  the  scheme  ;  but  I  doubt,  whether  in  the  present 
weak  state  of  the  ministry,  he  will  dare  to  meddle  with  what 
will  certainly  raise  opposition.  I  believe  very  little  is  done 
or  doing  yet  toward  the  settlement  of  America  ;  and  I  know 
not  what  disposition  will  be  made  of  the  lands  belonging  to 
the  Popish  clergy  in  the  conquered  provinces. 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  the  money  is  paid  to  Mr.  Charlton. 
I  have  heard  nothing  of  any  design  of  a  Degree  for  Mr.  Chan 
dler,  but  from  you.  If  any  person  here  is  engaged  in  it,  I 
should  know,  that  we  may  act  in  concert.  But  I  think  we 
should  have  a  more  formal  recommendation  of  him  from 
you  and  Dr.  Barclay,  and  any  other  principal  persons,  clergy 
or  laity. 

Your  account  of  Mr.  Cooper  gives  me  great  pleasure.  In 
a  late  letter  to  me,  he  expresses  good  hopes  about  the  Col 
lege  ;  but  complains  of  some  disappointment  in  regard  to  his 
income,  which  I  do  not  distinctly  understand.  I  have  writ 
ten  to  him,  to  recommend  patience  ;  and  to  Dr.  Barclay,  to 
desire  that  the  Governors  will  be  as  kind  to  him  as  with  pro 
priety  they  can.  Mr.  Caner  hath  sent  over  one  Mr.  Frink 
for  a  new  mission  at  Rutland,  about  sixty  miles  from  Boston, 
without  any  previous  mention  of  the  matter  to  the  Society, 
which  is  irregular  ;  and  I  do  not  think  we  shall  appoint  him  to 


278  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

it ;  perhaps  to  some  vacant  old  one  we  may,  if  such  there  be. 
The  Mission  of  Braintree  is  offered  to  Mr.  Winslow,  in  order 
to  make  room  for  you  at  Stratford.  Whether  it  be  worth 
his  acceptance  I  know  not.  But  the  Society  are  very  desir 
ous  of  restoring  you  to  your  old  station  ;  and  if  this  proposal 
doth  not  succeed,  they  will  be  glad  to  have  any  other  method 
pointed  out  to  them. 

Since  I  wrote  thus  far,  the  Society  hath  appointed  Mr. 
Frink  Missionary  at  Augusta.  It  seems  he  was  inoculated 
a  few  days  before.  I  hope  he  will  get  safe  through  the  dis 
temper. 

God  bless  you,  good  Dr.  Johnson,  and  His  Church  in  your 
parts.  I  am,  with  much  esteem, 

Your  loving  brother, 

THO.  CANT. 

LAMBETH,  September  28,  1763. 

Answer :  — 

December  20,  1763. 

MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  GRACE,  —  I  humbly  ask  your 
Grace's  pardon  for  writing  so  soon  again,  which  I  hope  you 
will  excuse,  as  I  should  be  extremely  wanting  in  my  duty  to 
your  Grace,  if  I  did  not  most  gratefully  acknowledge  your 
very  kind  letter  of  September  28,  which  I  lately  received.  I 
am  very  glad  and  thank  God  that  your  health  is  not  so  much 
impaired  as  to  forbid  your  giving  some  attention  to  business, 
and  I  earnestly  pray  that  it  may  be  yet  again  confirmed  and 
lengthened  out  to  the  utmost,  and  the  rather  as  I  am  ex 
tremely  afraid  that  in  these  times  no  gentleman  can  be 
found  that  will  go  near  to  make  good  your  Grace's  ground. 
I  am  surprised  Mr.  Beach's  book  is  not  come  to  your  hands  ; 
I  sent  a  copy  which  was  promised  me  to  be  sent  you  from 
Boston  seven  months  ago ;  and  I  have  again  urged  it,  and 
Aplin's  (a  lawyer),  for  so  is  his  name.  Mr.  Caner  (as  it  is 
privately  said)  has  made,  I  think,  a  pretty  good  answer  to 
Mayhew,  with  which  mine,  such  as  it  is,  is  printed ;  but  I 
hear  Mayhew  has  replied  already,  still  in  his  own  way.  Mr. 
Caner  has  remarked  upon  these  Societies  much  as  your 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  279 

Grace  mentions.  I  trust  it  will  soon  come  to  you,  and  that 
you  will  not  dislike  it. 

Did  our  benefactors  know  the  real  state  of  things  in  New 
England,  they  would  allow  that  missionaries  are  as  much 
needed  here  as  in  other  parts  of  America.  The  wildest 
notions  are  propagated  here  both  on  the  side  of  enthusiasm 
and  infidelity  ;  but  I  wish  to  God  more  could  be  done  there 
as  well  as  here.  Dr.  Barclay's  Defense  was  sent  to  the  So 
ciety,  and  I  have  advised  him  to  send  your  Grace  a  copy, 
and  also  to  write  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Chandler,  whose  char 
acter  truly  is  that  of  a  most  faithful  Missionary,  and  one  that 
hath  made  much  proficiency  in  learning,  and  especially  in 
divinity.  I  know  of  none  so  much  to  my  mind  that  loves 
books,  and  reads  so  much  as  he.  It  would  be  for  the  honor 
and  interest  of  the  Church  and  religion,  if  there  were  at 
least  one  in  each  province  of  that  degree,  and  he  a  Com 
missary.  I  wish  Mr.  Caner  had  a  D.  D.  degree,  who 
well  deserves  it,  and  the  rather  as  there  is  none  in  that 
province  now  but  Dr.  Cutler,  who  has  done.  By  a  letter 
lately  from  Mr.  Cooper  it  appears  that  the  Governors  of 
the  College  have  enlarged  his  salary  to  his  content. 

It  is  truly  a  miserable  thing,  my  Lord,  that  we  no  sooner 
leave  fighting  our  neighbors,  the  French,  but  we  must 
fall  to  quarrelling  among  ourselves.  I  fear  the  present 
state  of  our  ministry  is  indeed  very  feeble ;  so  that  I  doubt 
we  must,  after  all  our  hopes,  lose  the  present  juncture  also 
for  gaining  the  point  we  have  long  had  so  much  at  heart, 
and  I  believe  must  never  expect  another.  Is  there  then 
nothing  more  that  can  be  done  either  for  obtaining  Bishops 
or  demolishing  these  pernicious  charter  governments,  and 
reducing  them  all  to  one  form  in  immediate  dependence  on 
the  king  ?  I  cannot  help  calling  them  pernicious,  for  they 
are  indeed  so  as  well  for  the  best  good  of  the  people  them 
selves  as  for  the  interests  of  true  religion.  I  would  hope 
Providence  may  somehow  bring  it  about  that  things  may  be 
compromised  respecting  the  ministry,  and  would  it  not  now 
be  a  proper  juncture  for  some  such  general  address  from 


280  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

the  provinces  here  to  the  King  as  I  once  mentioned  to  your 
Grace  ?  or  is  there  not  probability  enough  of  success  left 
with  regard  to  both  Bishops  and  government  to  make  it 
worth  while  for  a  gentleman  or  two,  who  I  believe  might  be 
procured  to  go  from  hence  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  these 
points  ?  for  I  doubt  nothing  will  do  without  solicitation  from 
hence.  I  should  be  greatly  obliged  to  your  Grace  for  your 
opinion  and  direction  in  respect  to  these  things  as  soon  as 
may  be.  It  is  indeed  too  much  to  trouble  your  Grace  with 
these  affairs  in  your  present  infirm  state.  I  therefore  hum 
bly  beg  your  pardon  that  I  am  thus  importunate.  I  re 
member  you  once  mentioned  his  Grace  of  York  as  having 
extraordinary  talents  for  business ;  could  not  he  be  engaged 
to  be  active  in  these  affairs  ?  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  the 
Society  that  they  are  very  desirous  to  restore  me  to  this 
station.  Mr.  Winslow  is  gone  to  Braintree,  to  see  whether 
it  will  do  for  him  to  accept  it,  and  I  am  prone  to  think  he 
will.  If  he  does  I  shall  do  my  best,  but  I  shall  soon  need 
some  assistance. 

I  am,  with  the  greatest  veneration,  etc., 

S.  J. 

The  reply  of  Archbishop  Seeker  to  this  letter  gives 
the  reason  for  his  own  share  in  the  controversy,  and 
suggests  a  conciliatory  course  to  attain  the  great  ob 
ject  in  view. 

GOOD  DR.  JOHNSON,  —  Since  my  last  of  September  28, 
1763,  I  have  been  favored  with  two  letters  from  you,  dated 
Ooctober  20,  and  December  20.  The  first  did  not  seem  to 
require  an  immediate  answer,  and  about  the  time  that  I 
received  the  second,  the  gout  seized  both  my  hands  and 
both  my  feet.  It  made  several  attacks  on  my  right  hand, 
and  disabled  me  from  making  almost  any  use  of  it  for  two 
or  three  months.  I  am  now,  God  be  thanked,  nearly  as 
well  as  usual,  and  have  received  all  the  pamphlets  which 
were  designed  for  me  from  America.  When  Dr.  Mayhew's 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  281 

"  Observations,'*  etc.,  were  reprinted  here,  it  was  thought 
necessary  that  an  answer  to  them  should  also  be  printed 
here ;  which  was  done  before  the  "  Candid  Examination,  and 
Letter  to  a  Friend,"  came  to  my  hands.  An  hundred  copies 
of  the  answer  were  sent  by  the  Society  to  the  Colonies, 
and  I  hope  you  have  had  one  of  them.  It  was  believed 
that  they  would  do  no  harm  amongst  you,  and  might  do 
some  good,  though  the  "  Candid  Examination,"  etc.,  was  un 
doubtedly  sufficient  for  your  part  of  the  world.  If  you  see 
any  mistakes  in  the  Answer,  or  hear  of  any  objections  to 
any  part  of  it,  that  seem  to  be  material,  be  pleased  to 
send  me  an  account  of  them,  with  such  remarks  as  you 
think  proper.  I  have  Dr.  Mayhew's  "  Defence  of  his  Ob 
servations."  He  manifests  the  same  spirit  as  before,  and 
runs  out  into  many  things  of  little  consequence  to  the  So 
ciety.  The  case  of  Mr.  Price  and  Mr.  Barrett,  page  125, 
etc.,  is  new  to  me ;  and  if  it  be  truly  represented,  the  for 
mer  seems  to  have  been  blamable.  If  any  reply  is  made,  I 
hope  it  will  be  short  and  cool.  Some  angry  Dissenter  hath 
published  a  pamphlet,  entitled,  "  The  Claims  of  the  Church 
of  England  Seriously  Considered,  in  a  letter  to  the  author 
of  the  Answer  to  Dr.  Mayhew."  There  is  but  little  in  it 
relative  to  the  Society,  and  nothing  that  requires  confutation. 
The  affair  of  American  Bishops  continues  in  suspense. 
Lord  Willoughby  of  Parham,  the  only  English  Dissenting 
Peer,  and  Dr.  Chandler,1  have  declared,  after  our  scheme  was 
fully  laid  before  them,  that  they  saw  no  objection  against  it. 
The  Duke  of  Bedford,  Lord  President,  hath  given  a  calm 
and  favorable  hearing  to  it,  hath  desired  it  may  be  reduced 
into  writing,  and  promised  to  consult  about  it  with  the  other 
ministers  at  his  first  leisure.  Indeed,  I  see  not  how  Prot 
estant  Bishops  can  decently  be  refused  us,  as  in  all  probabil 
ity  a  Popish  one  will  be  allowed,  by  connivance  at  least,  in 
Canada.  The  Ecclesiastical  settlement  of  that  country  is 
not  made  yet,  but  is  under  consideration,  and  I  hope  will 
be  a  reasonable  and  satisfactory  one.  Four  clergymen  will 

1  Samuel  Chandler,  a  Presbyterian  divine  of  London. 


282  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

be  appointed  for  Florida,  with  salaries  of  £100  each,  and 
four  school-masters  with  £25  each;  and  the  Society  have 
been  desired  to  provide  them.  This  I  consider  as  a  good 
omen  ;  yet  much  will  depend  on  various  circumstances,  and 
particularly  on  the  opinion,  or  persuasion  concerning  the 
opinion  of  the  Americans,  both  Dissenters  and  Churchmen. 

The  Bishop  of  London  died  last  week ;  poor  man,  he  was 
every  way  unequal  to  that  station.  His  successor,  Dr.  Ter- 
rick,  is  a  sensible  and  good  tempered  man,  greatly  esteemed 
as  a  preacher,  and  personally  liked  by  the  king,  as  well  as 
favored  by  the  ministry.  Therefore  I  hope  he  will  both  have 
considerable  influence,  and  use  it  well.  He  was  Residentiary 
of  St.  Paul's  Church,  when  I  was  made  Dean.  I  had  no  ac 
quaintance  with  him  before,  but  we  have  been  very  good 
friends  ever  since ;  and  I  doubt  not  but  we  shall  remain 
such,  and  consult  together  about  American  affairs. 

We  must  not  run  the  risk  of  increasing  the  outcry  against 
the  Society  ;  especially  in  the  present  crisis,  and  so  perhaps 
lose  an  opportunity  of  settling  Bishops  in  our  Colonies,  by 
establishing  two  or  three  new  Missions  in  New  England. 
Our  affairs  are  not  to  be  carried  on  with  a  high  hand,  but 
our  success,  if  we  do  succeed,  must  arise  from  conciliating 
the  minds  of  men.  And  this  ought  to  be  labored  very  dili 
gently  abroad  as  well  as  at  home. 

The  Society  hath  agreed,  in  pursuance  of  a  proposal  made 
by  Dr.  Smith,  to  establish  a  proper  number  of  correspond 
ing  Societies,  with  an  agent  or  president  for  each  of  them ; 
to  give  information  and  advice  concerning  all  needful  af 
fairs,  and  act  for  the  Society  in  all  requisite  cases.  But 
this  general  scheme  cannot  be  brought  into  due  form  for 
execution,  till  we  see  whether  Bishops  can  be  obtained  and 
how  many. 

The  Archbishop  of  York  is  very  active  in  our  business,  as 
well  as  able.  He  hath  brought  the  estate  of  Codrington 
College  out  of  a  most  lamentable  condition  into  a  very 
hopeful  one,  and  he  hath  done  a  great  deal  with  the  min 
isters  in  our  ecclesiastical  concerns.  But  these,  and  partic- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  283 

ularly  what  relates  to  Bishops,  must  be  managed  in  a  quiet, 
private  manner.  Were  solicitors  to  be  sent  over  prema 
turely  from  America  for  Bishops,  there  would  come  also  so 
licitors  against  them  ;  a  flame  would  be  raised,  and  we  should 
never  carry  our  point.  Whenever  an  application  from  them 
is  really  wanted  and  become  seasonable,  be  assured  that  you 
will  have  immediate  notice. 

I  have  heard  nothing  yet  of  Dr.  Barclay's  Defence  ;  nor 
hath  he  mentioned  to  me  the  propriety  of  a  Degree  for  Mr. 
Chandler,  though  I  had  a  letter  from  him,  dated  January 
20.  I  desire  to  know  what  College  degree  Mr.  Chandler 
hath,  and  of  what  standing  he  is  in  that  College  ;  and  the 
same  of  Mr.  Caner. 

Concerning  the  other  particulars  in  your  letters,  I  pre 
sume  the  Secretary  hath  written  to  you  ;  and  therefore  I 
shall  only  add  that  I  heartily  pray  God  to  give  you  every 
blessing  needful  for  you,  and  earnestly  desire  your  prayers  in 
return  for  Your  loving  brother, 

THO.  CANT. 

LAMBETH,  May  22,  1764. 

These  letters  show  how  much  Seeker  relied  upon 
the  judgment  of  Johnson  to  guide  him  in  his  efforts 
for  the  Church  in  the  American  Colonies.  A  wide 
ocean  rolled  between  them  and  there  was  often  op* 
portunity  for  ministerial  crises  and  important  politi 
cal  events  before  they  could  interchange  views.  But 
they  kept  each  other  well  posted,  and  if  Johnson 
could  not  discern  the  wisdom  of  the  state  policy 
which  hemmed  in  the  zeal  of  his  "loving  brother," 
he  would  not  cease  to  plead  for  the  Episcopacy  in 
America,  and  to  hope  that  it  might  be  secured  before 
his  probation  ended. 

He  had  written  to  Mr.  Ap thorp  very  freely  on  this 
and  other  subjects  growing  out  of  the  controversy 
with  Dr.  Mayhew,  and  among  the  letters  which  he 


284  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

received  in  reply  was  one  that  spoke  of  the  influence 
which  his  son  might  have,  if  employed  to  present  the 
application  for  Bishops.  The  letter  should  be  given 
in  full  for  the  information  it  contains :  — 

CAMBRIDGE,  May  7,  1764. 

REVEREND  AND  GOOD  SIK,  —  I  have  before  me  two  of 
your  favors,  for  which  I  make  my  earliest  acknowledgments. 
The  great  affliction  of  our  family  in  the  death  of  Mrs. 
Wheelwright,  who  was  extremely  dear  to  us  all,  has  hardly 
given  me  leisure  or  spirits,  for  some  time  past,  to  attend  to 
any  but  the  most  necessary  business. 

I  had  a  long  conversation  with  Mr.  Bennet  on  his  affair. 
His  public  spirit  leads  him  to  project  things  that  I  fear  can 
not  be  effected,  for  want  of  the  same  spirit  among  those  who 
alone  can  execute  them.  I  have  however  undertaken  to  do 
all  in  my  power  ;  which  is,  to  solicit  our  Governor  and  Lieu 
tenant-governor  to  patronize  him,  and  to  receive  four  Indian 
youths  at  Boston,  and  in  England.  I  shall  use  the  influ 
ence  of  my  friends  with  the  Society  to  fix  Mr.  Bennet  on 
their  list,  and  to  obtain,  if  possible,  the  appointment  of  two 
missionaries  for  the  Mohawks.  I  hope  something  was  done 
for  him  at  a  meeting  of  the  Episcopal  Society  in  Boston,  to 
whom  I  recommended  the  support  of  his  good  undertaking. 
He  proposes  to  make  me  another  visit  in  a  fortnight, 
when  everything  that  can  be  done  at  Boston  will  be  at 
tempted. 

The  affair  of  soliciting  the  settlement  of  Bishops  among 
us,  is,  I  perceive,  a  matter  of  too  great  consequence  and 
difficulty  for  me  to  engage  in  singly.  What  I  wrote  so 
hastily  was  rather  expressive  of  my  good  will  than  of  my  set 
tled  thoughts.  I  soon  after  received  a  permission  from  the 
Society,  and  an  invitation  from  my  friends  to  make  a  voyage 
to  England,  which  I  hope  to  accomplish,  by  God's  blessing, 
this  year.  I  shall  gladly  exert  myself  in  promoting  that 
great  national  measure  you  speak  of,  as  far  as  shall  be 
proper  for  me.  And  as  the  subject  is  of  much  importance, 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  285 

I  will  write  my  thoughts  to  you  with  freedom  and  simplicity. 
It  is  an  affair  that  would  be  solicited  by  a  layman  with  less 
aversion  and  opposition  than  by  a  clergyman.  And  I  believe 
there  can  hardly  be  a  properer  person  employed  than  Mr. 
Johnson,  whom  I  heartily  wish  well  recovered  of  the  small 
pox.  If  he  should  engage  in  that  service,  I  think  his  in 
structions  from  hence  ought  to  be  of  weight  and  authority. 
If  he  was  himself,  in  person,  to  collect  the  sense  of  the  prin 
cipal  governments,  not  only  of  the  clergy,  but  of  the  Gov 
ernors  and  persons  of  property  and  character  among  the 
laity,  it  might  have  a  good  effect.  But  I  think  the  letters 
you  mention,  signed  by  a  few  of  the  clergy  in  each  province, 
would  be  ineffectual.  If  the  whole  application  both  here 
and  in  England  was  conducted  with  firmness,  spirit  and 
dignity,  I  am  apt  to  think  it  would  succeed,  as  the  Arch 
bishop,  and  (it  is  said)  the  King  himself  approves  of  it.  My 
opinion  is  confirmed  by  an  answer  to  Dr.  May  hew  pub 
lished  in  London  last  winter,  and  wrote  with  admirable 
strength  and  temper.  But  this  I  suppose  you  have  seen. 

I  know  nothing  of  the  article  of  news  relating  to  Dr. 
Tucker  of  Bristol ;  nor  do  I  think  it  is  at  all  to  be  depended 
on. 

What  I  write  on  this  subject  is  with  the  most  entire  con 
fidence  in  your  wisdom  to  suppress  any  thoughts  which  you 
may  not  approve,  and  to  accept  my  good  intention.  In  this 
view  I  transcribe  the  quotation  I  mentioned,  on  the  opposite 
page,  and  beg  leave  to  declare  myself, 

Very  respectfully,  Reverend  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  servant, 
EAST 


1  Though  the  son  of  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Boston,  he  did  not  return  to  this  coun 
try  again,  but  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  England,  being  first  presented  by 
Archbishop  Seeker  to  the  Vicarage  of  Croydon.  He  was  subsequently  collated  to 
the  Rectory  of  St.  Mary-le-Bow  in  London,  with  other  benefices  annexed,  and  still 
later  became  a  Prebend  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  It  is  said  he  was  actually  offered 
the  Bishopric  of  Kildare,  but  having  lost  his  sight,  he  was  obliged  to  decline,  and 
finally  retired  to  Cambridge  among  the  scenes  of  his  early  education,  for  he  was 
an  alumnus  and  fellow  of  Jesus  College,  "honored  and  loved  not  only  in  his  im 
mediate  circle,  but  by  many  of  the  great  and  good  beyond  it."  He  died  April  16, 
1816,  in  the  85th  year  of  his  age. 


286  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  SMALL-POX  IN  NEW  YORK  ;  DEATH  OF  HIS  WIFE  ;  RESIGNA 
TION  OF  THE  PRESIDENCY  AND  RETIREMENT  TO  STRATFORD  ; 
CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  FRIENDS  IN  ENGLAND  ;  RE-APPOINT 
MENT  TO  HIS  FORMER  MISSION  ;  ADDRESS  TO  THE  BISHOP  OF 
LONDON  ;  THE  STAMP  ACT  ;  CONTINUED  INTEREST  IN  THE  COL 
LEGE  ;  AND  CLERICAL  CONVENTION. 

A.  D.  1763-1766. 

FOR  some  time  it  had  been  known  that  the  disease 
which  Johnson  so  much  dreaded  was  more  or  less  prev 
alent  in  town.  He  had  not  chosen  to  avail  himself  of 
the  stipulation  made  with  the  Governors  that  he 
might  retire  into  the  country  on  its  appearance,  but 
had  remained  at  his  post,  and  used  additional  cau 
tion,  to  avoid  the  contagion.  When  the  last  Com 
mencement  was  held  (1762),  he  was  carried  to  the 
Chapel  in  a  close  carriage  ;  and  in  all  the  letters  to 
his  son  for  the  rest  of  the  year,  he  expressed  his 
thankfulness  to  God  for  the  continuance  of  good 
health,  and  seemed  to  be  cheered  with  the  hope  of 
soon  getting  away  from  a  situation  of  such  peculiar 
anxiety.  He  began  to  think  of  having  accommoda 
tions  provided  for  him  in  Stratford,  and  his  son, 
writing  to  him  in  Christmas  week,  said,  "  If  you  de 
termine  absolutely  to  remove  in  the  Spring  you  will 
let  me  know  by-and-by,  whether  I  shall  prepare  to 
enlarge  my  house,  or  endeavor  to  hire  one  for  you, 
if  any  should  offer." 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  287 

By  this  time  the  small-pox  had  appeared  in  several 
dwellings  near  the  College,  and  he  and  his  wife  were 
obliged  to  keep  as  close  as  possible  in  the  building, 
and  with  this  precaution  they  hoped  to  be  safe.  To 
wards  the  end  of  January,  however,  Mrs.  Johnson  be 
came  very  ill  with  what  was  thought  to  be  only  a 
bad  cold,  but  alas  !  on  the  first  day  of  February  her 
real  disorder  developed  itself,  which  proved  to  be  the 
small-pox.  She  received  the  information  with  com 
posure,  and,  from  a  tender  regard  for  the  welfare  of 
her  husband,  desired  him  to  leave  her  with  his  prayers 
in  the  hands  of  God,  and  withdraw  to  a  place  of  less 
danger.  For  two  days  he  occupied  a  room  in  the 
other  end  of  the  College  building,  and  then  his  friends, 
thinking  him  too  much  exposed,  he  retired  three 
miles  distant  to  the  country  seat  of  Mr.  Watts,  and 
there  waited  in  painful  suspense  the  result  of  his  wife's 
sickness.  He  had  not  long  to  wait,  for  on  the  llth 
of  February,  overwhelmed  with  grief,  he  wrote  to  his 
son,  "  The  thing  that  I  feared  is  come  upon  me, 
God's  will  is  done.  Your  good  mother  died  on  Wed 
nesday  evening,  the  9th,"  and  he  added  that  they 
were  probably  then  "  carrying  her  to  her  grave,  to 
lie  by  his  own  mother,"  under  the  Chancel  of  Trinity 
Church. 

This  bereavement  was  a  crushing  blow  to  him,  and 
he  resolved  at  once  to  resign  the  presidency  of  the 
College  and  go  into  retirement.  He  tarried  a  fort 
night  longer  at  the  country  seat  of  his  friend,  wrote 
his  letter  of  resignation  to  the  Governors,  and  then 
committing  his  affairs  to  Mr.  Cooper  and  a  lay-gentle 
man,  "  hired  an  able  hand  with  a  sleigh  "  to  take  him 
to  Stratford,  where  he  arrived  February  25,  1763. 


288  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

He  was  now  in  the  67th  year  of  his  age,  blessed 
with  good  health,  but  having  natural  infirmities  which 
called  for  a  less  anxious  and  active  life.  His  con 
nection  with  the  College  had  been  a  sacrifice  to  him 
in  a  pecuniary  sense,  and  in  resigning  the  charge  of 
it,  he  modestly  hinted  that  he  might  be  entitled  to 
some  consideration  for  his  many  hardships  and  losses. 
That  it  had  not  prospered  more  was  not  owing  to  any 
fault  of  his,  but  to  "  providential  misfortunes  or  to 
the  Governors  themselves,  in  not  providing  a  good 
Grammar  school ;  for,"  said  he,  "  till  provision  is 
made  both  for  a  better  classical  and  English  educa 
tion,  the  College  can  never  flourish." 

The  following  correspondence  has  a  meaning  that 
is  more  than  simply  official :  — 

NEW  YORK,  March  2,  1768. 

REVEREND  SIR,  —  At  the  meeting  of  the  Governors  of 
King's  College  yesterday,  your  letter  addressed  to  them  was 
laid  before  them.  They  are  sensibly  touched  with  your  late 
misfortune,  and  the  immediate  occasion  of  your  retiring ; 
and  that  vein  of  benevolence,  which  runs  through  your  letter, 
could  not  but  very  much  affect  them. 

I  have  the  pleasure  to  be  the  instrument  of  returning 
their  thanks  for  your  faithful  service  as  President,  and  your 
good  offices  for  promoting  the  interest  of  the  College  hitherto, 
and  your  affectionate  wishes  for  the  future  prosperity  of  it, 
gratefully  accepting  your  kind  offer  of  continuing  your  en 
deavors  on  all  occasions  for  the  advancement  of  that  good 
work  ;  and  they  wish  you  health  and  happiness. 

As  for  the  rest,  the  Governors  have  resolved  to  take  your 
case  into  consideration  at  some  future  meeting.  In  the  mean 
time  be  assured  that  I  am, 

Reverend  Sir,  your  very  affectionate  friend  and 
very  humble  servant, 

DANIEL  HORSMANDEN. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  289 

Answer  :  — 

March  30. 

GENTLEMEN,  —  I  very  humbly  thank  you  for  your  kind 
answer  to  my  letter  to  you,  communicated  to  me  by  the 
Honorable  Judge  Horsmanden,  and  for  your  affectionate 
sympathy  with  me  under  my  truly  compassionable  circum 
stances  ;  and  that  you  take  in  so  good  part  my  past  faithful 
endeavors  to  serve  you,  and  my  persevering  solicitude  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  College.  This,  I  trust,  is  a  pleasing  pre 
lude  to  that  friendship  which  I  hope  will  always  subsist  be 
tween  the  Corporation  and  me,  and  a  further  engagement  to 
any  good  offices  in  my  power  for  the  furtherance  of  its 
wants. 

I  am  particularly  thankful,  gentlemen,  for  your  kind  reso 
lution  in  my  favor,  to  take  my  present  depressed  condition 
into  your  benevolent  consideration  at  some  future  meeting, 
and  shall  gratefully  acknowledge  whatever  kind  dispositions 
you  shall  at  any  time  express  towards  me.  With  my  con 
tinued  fervent  wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  you  and  yours,  and 
that  dear  College, 

I  remain,  Gentlemen,  with  great  regard, 

Your  most  affectionate  friend  and  obed't  humble  serv't, 

S.  J. 

It  was  a  time  of  war  during  the  whole  of  his  Presi 
dency,  and  the  expenses  of  living  in  town  had  been 
so  much  greater  than  was  expected,  that  the  Gover 
nors  could  not  well  refuse  a  gratuity,  and  finally  voted 
to  settle  upon  him  a  pension  of  fifty  pounds  per  an 
num.  This  was  secured  chiefly  through  the  influence 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Auchmuty,  who  did  not  think  it 
enough,  but  was  glad  to  have  some  recognition  of  the 
sacrifices  and  self-denials  of  his  venerable  friend. 

Johnson  was  resolved  not  to  be  idle  in  his  retire 
ment.  His  son  "  built  him  an  elegant  apartment," 
attached  to  his  own  mansion,  where,  surrounded  with 

19 


290  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

his  books  and  his  grandchildren,  he  devoted  himself 
to  quiet  study  and  was  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  his 
domestic  privileges.  His  literary  and  theological  cor 
respondence  was  not  slackened  but  rather  increased  ; 
and  the  introduction  of  the  works  of  good  authors 
into  this  country  continued  to  be  an  object  near  his 
heart.  A  letter  of  his  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Home  of  Ox 
ford,  from  which  an  extract  was  given  in  the  previous 
chapter,  brought  forth  a  reply  which  must  have 
reached  him  in  the  freshness  of  his  sorrow  for  the 
death  of  his  wife. 

REVEREND  SIR, —  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  the 
good  opinion  you  are  pleased  to  entertain  of  me  and  any  trifle 
I  have  published  ;  and  rejoice  to  have  an  opportunity  of 
recommending  a  work  of  real  merit  and  solidity  on  the  sub 
ject  of  the  sacred  philosophy,  by  my  learned  friend  Mr.  Jones, 
who  is  proceeding  on  the  same  plan,  with  ability  and  erudi 
tion  adequate  to  the  work,  as  fast  as  his  health  will  permit 
him.  Dr.  Patten's  controversy  with  Heathcote,  some  time 
since  at  an  end,  I  presume  hath  found  its  way  to  New  York. 
The  Doctor  hath  published  nothing  more  except  an  excellent 
sermon  on  "  Natural  Religion."  Dr.  Newton,  Bishop  of 
Bristol,  hath  lately  put  forth  an  admirable  work  on  the 
"  Prophecies,"  in  three  vols.  octavo.  I  expect  Dr.  Jay  every 
minute,  to  whom  I  shall  deliver  this  with  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Berkeley  ;  and  am  with  best  wishes  and  prayers  for  the  pros 
perity  of  King's  College  and  the  worthy  President  thereof, 
Reverend  Sir,  your  most  affectionate  servant, 

G.   HORNE. 
MAGD.  COLL.,  November  29,  1762. 

Answer :  — 

STRATFORD,  IN  CONN.,  N.  E.,  June  l. 

REVEREND  AND  WORTHY  SIR,  —  I  am  very  much  obliged 
to  you  for  your  most  kind  letter  of  November  29,  and  the  very 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  291 

excellent  things  that  accompanied  it,  which  are  all  entirely  to 
my  mind,  and  I  want  words  to  express  my  gratitude  for  them. 
Mr.  Jones's  Essay  is  exactly  such  a  thing  as  I  have  long 
wished  to  see,  and  I  am  the  more  pleased  with  it  as  coming 
from  the  author  of  the  "  Catholic  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity," 
which  I  had  before  been  highly  pleased  with.  These  are  in 
deed  the  true  primitive  original  philosophy  and  divinity  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  made  evident  and  intelligible.  You 
will  please  to  give  him  my  compliments  and  thanks  for  these 
good  works,  which  I  shall  earnestly  recommend  to  our  book 
sellers  to  have  always  by  them,  and  to  my  College  to  be  al 
ways  there  taught  and  inculcated,  where  your  state  of  the 
case  has  already  been  of  good  use.  I  earnestly  pray  God 
to  give  Mr.  Jones  life  and  health  to  finish  what  he  designs ; 
and  to  you  also,  good  Sir,  as  well  as  Dr.  Patten,  that  you 
may  go  on  to  bless  the  world  with  your  most  useful  writ 
ings,  that  this  unholy  age  may  if  possible  be  reclaimed  from 
its  apostatising  turn.  I  had  received  from  Mr.  Cooper  a  high 
notion  of  Dr.  Morton  and  ordered  my  bookseller  to  procure  it, 
and  grow  impatient  till  it  comes. 

It  is  of  vast  importance  to  us  at  this  distance  .to  have 
good  authors  pointed  out  to  us  by  good  judges.  I  shall 
therefore  be  highly  obliged  to  you,  if  you  will  be  so  kind 
as  to  communicate  to  me  and  my  successor  such  as  at  any 
time  excel ;  and  indeed  it  would  be  happy  for  us  if  really 
good  authors  could  be  induced  from  time  to  time  to  present 
our  Library  with  their  productions  in  every  kind. 

I  date,  you  see,  Sir,  from  this  place,  whither  I  am  retired 
to  spend  with  my  only  and  most  tender  and  dutiful  son  the 
little  declining  remainder  of  my  time,  being  near  sixty-seven, 
and  wanting  retirement,  though,  thank  God,  in  perfect  health 
except  somewhat  paralytic.  I  did  not  indeed  intend  quite  so 
soon  to  leave  the  College,  but  so  it  pleased  God.  I  was  sud 
denly  driven  from  it  by  the  small-pox  breaking  out  in  my 
family  and  depriving  me  of  the  dear  partner  of  my  life.  But 
I  hope  it  will  immediately  be  well  governed  and  instructed  by 
Mr.  Cooper,  who  is  well  esteemed  and  appears  to  be  an  in- 


292  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

genious,  industrious,  and  prudent  young  gentleman.    I  have 
still  the  same  care  for  it  as   ever  so  far  as  can  be  at  this 
distance  —  about  seventy  miles,  —  the  post  weekly  passing, 
and  I  hope  now  and  then  to  visit  it.      If   you  do  me  the 
favor  to  write  again,  please  direct  to  me  here,  to  the  care 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Auchmuty  of  New  York. 
I  am,  Reverend  and  dear  Sir,  with  great  esteem  and  regard, 
Your  most  obliged  and  affectionate  friend  and  servant, 

S.  J. 

He  wrote  to  Dr.  Burton,  the  Secretary  of  the  So 
ciety,  in  the  autumn  of  1763,  to  express  his  thanks 
for  the  proposition  to  transfer  Mr.  Winslow  to  a  Mis 
sion  near  his  friends  in  Boston,  that  he  might  him 
self  be  reappointed  to  Stratford.  He  had  not  had 
much  thought  of  doing  more  in  his  advanced  years 
than  to  direct  the  theological  studies  of  a  few  young 
candidates  for  Holy  Orders,  and  send  them  with  com 
mendatory  letters  to  England.  But  this  opportunity 
of  resuming  parochial  duty  was  too  attractive  to  be 
disregarded.  It  met  with  favor  from  Mr.  Winslow, 
who  for  many  reasons  was  desirous  of  a  change.  "  I 
have  communicated  the  proposal  to  him,"  said  Johnson, 
"  which  he  was  fond  of,  as  it  would  place  him  near 
his  friends.  He  had  indeed  had  thoughts  of  it  before, 
but  some  of  his  friends  had  discouraged  him  about  it. 
However,  upon  this  offer  of  it,  he  is  now  thinking  in 
earnest  about  it  and  is  treating  with  the  Wardens  and 
Vestry  of  Braintree,  to  see  whether  it  may  prove  to 
his  advantage,  and  he  will  soon  let  the  Society  know 
whether  he  accepts,  as  I  am  apt  to  believe  he  will." 

Mr.  Winslow's  name  was  suggested  at  one  time  as 
a  suitable  person  to  take  the  Rectorship  of  Trinity 
Church,  New  York  ;  and  the  son  of  Dr.  Johnson, 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  293 

writing  April  9,  1764,  from  that  city,  whither  he  had 
gone  to  be  inoculated  for  the  small-pox,  said  to  his 
father,  "  Good  Dr.  Barclay  made  me  a  visit  yesterday 
though  he  was  but  illy  able  to  get  up-stairs ;  he  has 
had  a  bad  week  of  it.  He  returns  his  affectionate 
compliments  to  you,  but  is  at  present  by  no  means  fit 
to  undertake  such  a  journey  as  you  propose,  as  he 
cannot  ride  above  three  or  four  miles  in  a  day,  and 
durst  by  no  means  be  out  of  the  way  of  his  physicians. 
The  Doctor's  illness  has  occasioned  the  Church  to 
think  of  looking  out  for  another  clergyman.  Mr. 
Auchmuty  has  desired  my  opinion  of  Mr.  Winslow, 
whom  I  have  recommended  as  the  best  preacher  I 
know  of,  but  as  I  have  not  his  liberty  to  mention 
it,  1  must  beg  you  will  say  nothing  of  it  at  present, 
and  perhaps  he  will  write  to  you  himself  on  the  sub- 
ject." 

Letters  were  addressed  afterwards  directly  to  Mr. 
Winslow,  but  he  seems  not  to  have  favored  a  settle 
ment  in  New  York,  for  he  was  shortly  transferred  to 
Braintree,  and  the  venerable  Doctor  took  his  place 
and  returned  to  pastoral  work  among  a  people  who 
had  not  forgotten  his  fidelity,  though  for  ten  years 
they  had  only  heard  his  voice  occasionally.  With  the 
assistance  of  a  student  at  times  in  reading  the  service, 
he  found  little  difficulty  in  fulfilling  his  duties,  and 
his  residence  in  the  Colony  again  became  a  tower  of 
strength  to  the  Church  in  Connecticut. 

The  following  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter 
bury,  in  answer  to  one  which  appears  in  the  previous 
chapter,  shows  how  earnest  he  was  at  this  juncture 
for  the  complete  establishment  of  the  Church  in 
America :  — 


294  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

September 20,  1764. 

It  grieves  me  that  your  Grace  must  be  so  persecuted  with 
that  tormenting  distemper  for  which  nothing  can  atone,  but 
what  were  good  Bishop  Berkeley's  opinion  and  hopes,  that  it 
might  prevent  more  fatal  maladies  in  the  decline  of  life,  and 
tend  to  lengthen  one's  days.  This  I  do  at  least  earnestly 
pray  may  be  the  happy  event  with  respect  to  your  Grace's 
precious  life,  which  is  of  so  much  importance  to  the  present 
age. 

I  was  almost  overjoyed  after  our  feeble  efforts  here  to 
find  one,  who  I  did  not  doubt  was  the  ablest  hand  in  the 
kingdom,  had  condescended  to  undertake  our  mighty  giant, 
and  in  the  opinion  of  our  people  had  utterly  disarmed  him ; 
iior  had  any  of  the  Dissenters,  that  I  can  hear  of,  a  word  to 
say,  except  Mayhew  himself,  who,  upon  its  being  immedi 
ately  reprinted  here,  directly  advertised  an  answer  preparing, 
contrary  to  the  advice  of  his  best  friends.  I  had  it  from  a 
good  hand  that  a  man  of  the  best  sense  among  them  told 
him  he  was  completely  answered,  and  advised  him  by  no 
means  to  attempt  a  reply.  But  undaunted,  he  would  not 
be  dissuaded,  and  in  a  few  days  published  it ;  but  I  am  told, 
in  a  letter  from  Boston,  that  "  to  his  mortification  very  lit 
tle  is  said  about  it."  ....  In  a  word,  I  am  verily  persuaded 
it  will  do  much  the  most  good  here  as  well  as  at  home  of 
anything  that  has  yet  been  published.  It  is  doubtless  now 
in  your  hands,  and  you  are  the  fittest  judge  whether  any  re 
ply  is  necessary. 

Neither  had  I,  my  Lord,  ever  heard  of  the  case  of  Mr. 
Price  and  Barret,  in  which  there  might  be  too  much  truth, 
as  I  remember  Mr.  Price  was  too  intemperate  for  the  sake 
of  his  farm,  in  his  endeavors  to  propagate  the  Church  there. 

I  beg  your  Grace's  pardon  that  I  seemed  perhaps  a  little 
too  impatient  in  my  last  with  regard  to  the  settling  Episco 
pacy  in  these  countries,  where  I  know  that  all  the  Church 
people  (except  a  few  lukewarm  persons  and  free-thinking 
pretenders  to  it,  and  sometimes  attendants  on  it,  but  are 
really  enemies  to  any  establishment)  are  very  desirous  of  it ; 


OF    SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  295 

and  that  all  moderate  Dissenters,  who,  I  believe,  are  the 
most  numerous  in  the  whole,  and  who  know  what  is  really 
designed,  have  little  or  no  objection  to  it ;  and  that  the 
number  of  such  bitter  zealots  against  it  is  comparatively 
few,  and  chiefly  in  these  two  governments,  either  such  loose 
thinkers  as  Mayhew,  who  can  scarcely  be  accounted  better 
Christians  than  the  Turks,  or  such  furious  bitter  Calvin- 
istical  enthusiasts  as  are  really  no  more  friends  to  monarchy 
than  Episcopacy ;  and  against  people  of  both  these  sorts 
Episcopacy  is  really  necessary  towards  the  better  securing 
our  dependence,  as  well  as  many  other  good  political  pur 
poses. 

Your  Grace's  quiet,  private,  and  conciliating  method,  is 
doubtless  best  if  the  point  can  be  gained,  as  it  ought  to 
be,  in  that  way ;  but  as  I  knew  of  no  steps  taken  or  like  to 
be,  and  as  your  Grace  was  so  infirm,  I  was  afraid  nothing 
would  be  done  without  some  general  and  strong  solicitations 
from  hence,  without  which  indeed  I  feared  the  ministry  would 
hardly  think  anything  about  it  themselves,  or  that  we  were 
at  all  solicitous  for  it  here.  I  am  therefore  greatly  rejoiced 
that  something  is  doing,  that  the  two  chiefs  of  the  separation 
have  no  objection  to  it,  and  that  your  Grace  is  assisted  by 
two  such  great,  worthy,  and  active  gentlemen  as  the  Arch 
bishop  of  York  and  the  Bishop  of  London ;  and  that  they 
have  so  good  an  interest ;  and  that  so  great  a  minister  as 
the  Duke  of  Bedford  has  given  so  favorable  attention  to  it 
and  promised  to  promote  it.  These  are  very  hopeful  begin 
nings,  and  from  these,  together  with  the  other  considera 
tions  your  Grace  mentions,  it  should  seem  scarce  possible 
that  it  should  miscarry ;  so  that  I  hope  our  first  news  in 
the  spring  will  be  that  it  is  done,  and  that  our  governments 
all  depend  immediately  on  the  Crown.  May  God  Almighty 
grant  a  happy  success  to  your  Grace's  faithful  endeavors 
that  his  Church  here  may  at  length  at  this  crisis  be  provided 
with  worthy  Bishops,  without  which,  according  to  the  origi 
nal  constitution  of  the  Church  (in  my  humble  opinion),  no 
Church  can  be  perfect ;  which  if  it  should  please  God  to  grant, 


296  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

I  could  then  cheerfully  sing  my  nunc  dimittis !  but  if  He 
should  not,  the  best  thing  that  could  be  done  would  be  to 
go  into  Dr.  Smith's  proposal,  which  we  have  long  wished 
for. 

The  reason  for  not  increasing  missions  here  might  be  al 
lowed  good  at  this  juncture;  the  young  men1  are  safe  re 
turned,  and  will  doubtless  be  very  useful.  I  hope  Mr.  Jarvis 
may  do  tolerably  for  several  years,  as  his  people  are  much 
more  able.  But  Mr.  Hubbard  must  in  two  or  three  years 
be  otherwise  provided  for,  if  the  Society  cannot  help  Guil- 
ford,  which  for  the  reasons  I  mentioned  to  your  Grace,  I 
earnestly  hope  they  may  by  that  time  safely  do. 

What  hindered  good  Dr.  Barclay  from  mentioning  the  two 
things  your  Grace  tells  me  he  neglected,  I  am  not  able  to 
say,  unless  it  was  the  great  infirmity  he  then  began  to  labor 
under,  which  soon  disabled  him  for  public  duty,  and  last 
month  put  a  period  to  his  very  valuable  life,  to  the  inexpres 
sible  grief  of  his  church,  and  indeed  all  the  churches.  The 
worthy  and  faithful  Mr.  S.  Auchmuty  was  soon  unanimously 
chosen  in  his  place,  and  one  Mr.  Inglis  in  his,  whom  I  know 
not,  but  I  have  good  reason  to  think  that  Mr.  Auchmuty  will 
prove  a  worthy  incumbent,  and  I  wish  for  the  honor  of  the 
Church  and  his  station,  that  being  of  nigh  twenty  years'  stand 
ing  of  our  Cambridge,  he  might  also  succeed  the  Doctor  in 
his  degree.  As  to  Mr.  Caner,  he  was  bred  and  graduated  at 
our  New  Haven  College,  but  was  also  created  M.  A.  at  Ox 
ford,  March  3,  1735,  on  the  recommendation  of  Archbishop 
Potter ;  and  Mr.  Chandler  of  the  same  College  proceeded 
M.  A.  in  1748,  and  had  a  diploma  from  Oxford,  June  4, 
1753,  I  believe,  by  your  Grace's  influence.  And  now  I  am 
upon  the  subject  of  degrees,2  as  I  can't  but  retain  a  great  af 
fection  for  Oxon.  and  am  desirous  of  continuing  my  connection 
with  it,  will  your  Grace  forgive  me  if  I  mention  my  only  son, 
who  is  a  lawyer,  for  whom  I  am  desirous  of  a  Doctor's  degree 

1  Rev.  Abraham  Jarvis,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  and  Rev.  Bela  Hub- 
bard,  for  forty-five  years  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven. 
*  Those  for  which  Johnson  asked  in  this  letter  were  all  conferred  in  1706. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  297 

in  that  faculty  ?  His  name  is  Wm.  Samuel.  He  is  M.  A.  of 
seventeen  years'  standing  in  both  our  Colleges,  and  after  a 
laborious  study  of  the  law  he  has  been  above  ten  years  in  the 
practice  of  it  to  good  acceptance,  and  is  studious  in  Divinity 
as  well  as  in  Law,  and  much  engaged  in  the  interest  of  the 
Church  and  true  religion.  He  is  well  known  to  the  bearer, 
Mr.  Harison,  from  whom  your  Grace  may  have  a  further  ac 
count  of  him  if  you  think  it  needful.  Mr.  Apthorp's  affairs 
suddenly  calling  him  home,  I  beg  your  Grace's  particular  re 
gard  to  him  as  a  very  worthy  young  gentleman.  As  I  con 
tinue  to  pray  earnestly  for  your  Grace's  health  and  long  life, 
I  humbly  beg  the  continuance  of  your  prayers  and  blessing 
in  behalf  of,  etc..  S.  J. 

The  hope  of  obtaining  Bishops,  which  now  appeared 
so  bright,  was  not  realized.  The  ministry  disappointed 
all  the  friends  of  the  measure  by  neglecting  the  case 
of  the  Church  and  directing  attention  wholly  to  the 
civil  affairs  of  the  Colonies.  Great  confusions  and 
tumults  soon  after  followed  both  here  and  at  home  in 
consequence  of  the  passage  of  the  Stamp-act,  and  ad 
vantage  was  taken  of  this  state  of  things  to  raise  a 
fresh  clamor  against  the  establishment  of  Bishops  in 
America.  It  was  claimed  that  nineteen  twentieths  of 
the  American  people  utterly  opposed  the  scheme,  and 
no  correction  of  such  a  statement  was  ever  accepted 
by  the  ministry.  Dr.  Johnson  and  the  clergy  of  Con 
necticut  sent  congratulatory  addresses  to  Bishop  Ter- 
rick  on  his  advancement  to  the  See  of  London,  and 
a  correspondence  ensued  which  must  have  opened 
his  eyes,  though  he  was  powerless  to  effect  a  reform. 
Johnson  wrote  to  him  as  follows :  — 

July  15,  1765. 
I  take  this  opportunity  with  the  utmost  gratitude  to  ac- 


298  LIFE    AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

knowledge  your  Lordship's  most  kind  and  condescending 
letters  of  February  22,  both  to  the  clergy  and  me,  —  theirs 
I  sent  to  them  at  their  Convention,  which  I  could  not  at 
tend  by  reason  of  the  distance  and  badness  of  the  roads, 
and  I  hear  they  have  also  most  graciously  acknowledged  it 
in  a  joint  letter  to  your  Lordship.  I  am  glad  your  Lord 
ship  is  pleased  with  the  worthy  Mr.  Harison's  account  of 
the  clergy  in  this  Colony,  which  I  hope  they  will  be  more 
emulous  to  deserve. 

It  is,  my  Lord,  a  kind  condescension  that  you  are  pleased 
to  desire  of  me  an  account  of  the  state  of  religion  in  these 
parts  of  the  world.  It  is  with  much  difficulty  that  I  write, 
having  a  trembling  hand,  and  therefore  I  can  be  but  brief. 

The  true  state  of  religion  in  America,  with  respect  to  the 
several  denominations,  is  this  :  The  Independents  or  Con- 
gregationalists,  as  they  call  themselves  here  in  New  England, 
especially  in  the  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  Colonies, 
without  any  regard  to  the  king's  supremacy  in  matters  of  re 
ligion,  have  got  themselves  established  by  law  and  are  pleased 
to  consider  us  as  Dissenters,  but  are  miserably  harassed  with 
controversies  among  themselves,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
write  against  the  Church.  One  great  cause  of  their  quarrels 
is  the  Arminian,  Calvinistical,  Antinomian  and  enthusiastical 
controversies  which  run  high  among  them  and  create  great 
feuds  and  schisms ;  and  these  occasion  the  great  increase  of 
the  Church,  at  which  they  also  are  enraged,  though  them 
selves  are  the  chief  cause  of  it. 

As  to  the  Presbyterians,  my  Lord,  they  chiefly  obtain  in 
the  Southwestern  Colonies,  and  have  flourishing  presbyteries 
and  synods,  especially  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Penn 
sylvania,  in  their  full  vigor ;  while  in  all  these  parts  the 
poor  Church  is  in  a  low,  depressed,  and  very  imperfect  state 
for  want  of  her  pure  primitive  Episcopal  form  of  govern 
ment.  We  do  not,  my  Lord,  envy  our  neighbors,  nor  in  the 
least  desire  to  disquiet  them  in  their  several  ways.  We  only 
desire  to  be  upon  at  least  as  good  a  foot  as  they,  and  as  per 
fect  in  our  kind  as  they  in  theirs ;  and  this  we  think  we  have 


OF   SAMUEL   JOHNSON.  299 

a  right  to,  both  as  the  Episcopal  form  was  the  only  form  of 
government  at  first  universally  established  by  the  Apostles, 
and  is  the  primitive  form  established  by  law  in  our  mother 
country ;  and  therefore  cannot  but  think  ourselves  extremely 
injured  in  not  being  provided  for,  and  in  a  state  little  short 
of  persecution  in  our  candidates  being  forced,  at  a  great  ex 
pense  of  both  lives  and  fortune,  to  go  a  thousand  leagues 
for  every  ordination,  as  well  as  destitute  of  Confirmation  and 
a  regular  government.  So  that  unless  we  can  have  Bishops, 
especially  at  this  juncture,  the  Church,  and  with  it  the  in 
terest  of  true  religion,  must  dwindle  ;  while  we  suffer  the 
contempt  and  triumph  of  our  neighbors  under  this  neglect, 
who  plume  themselves  with  the  hope  that  the  Episcopate 
is  more  likely  (as  from  the  lukewarmness  and  indifference 
of  this  miserably  apostatizing  age  they  have  too  much  reason 
to  do)  to  be  abolished  at  home,  than  established  abroad. 
And  indeed,  my  Lord,  they  are  vain  enough  to  think  the 
civil  government  at  home  is  itself  really  better  affected  to 
them  than  to  the  Church  ;  and  even  disaffected  to  it ;  other 
wise  it  would  establish  Episcopacy  here  as  it  is  there.  Pudet 
hcec  opprobria  commemorare. 

I  humbly  thank  your  Lordship  for  saying  so  much  in  our 
behalf  in  your  excellent  sermon  before  the  Society.  Would 
to  God  a  due  notice  might  be  taken  of  it ;  I  do  also  most 
humbly  thank  you  for  your  kind  prayers  and  blessing,  and 
beg  the  continuance  of  them  ;  nor  shall  I  cease  to  pray  ear 
nestly  for  the  long  continuance  of  your  Lordship's  very  im 
portant  life  and  health,  being  truly,  my  Lord,  with  great 
veneration,  etc.,  S.  J. 

The  Stamp-act  threw  the  country  into  such  a  fer 
ment  and  the  opposition  to  its  enforcement  was  so 
great  that  steps  were  early  taken  to  procure  its  re 
peal.  A  Congress  of  the  Colonies  met  at  New  York, 
and  tiie  son  of  Dr.  Johnson  was  chosen  to  represent 
Connecticut  in  that  body,  and  drew  up  the  remon- 


300  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

strance  to  the  King  and  Parliament  against  the  meas 
ure,  asserting  taxation  by  themselves  and  trial  by 
jury  as  among  the  inherent  privileges  of  the  subjects 
of  the  British  realm  in  all  her  dependencies.  The 
President  of  the  Congress  —  Ruggles  of  Massachu 
setts  —  would  not  sign  the  document ;  and  James  Otis, 
a  colleague  of  his,  writing  to  Johnson  after  reaching 
his  home  in  Boston,  spoke  of  the  attempt  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Assembly  to  censure  him  for  his  refusal, 
which  he  himself  prevented,  and  then  added :  "  The 
people  of  this  Province,  however,  will  never  forgive 
him.  We  are  much  surprised  at  the  violent  pro 
ceedings  at  New  York,  as  there  has  been  so  much 
time  for  people  to  cool,  and  the  outrages  on  private 
property  are  so  generally  detested.  By  a  vessel  from 
South  Carolina  we  learn  that  the  people  were  in  a 
tumult  at  Charleston  and  terrible  consequences  ap 
prehended.  God  knows  what  all  these  things  will 
end  in,  and  to  Him  they  must  be  submitted.  In  the 
mean  time  'tis  much  to  be  feared  the  Parliament  will 
charge  the  Colonies  with  presenting  petitions  in  one 
hand  and  a  dagger  in  the  other." 

The  Stamp- act  was  repealed  just  one  year  after  its 
passage,  and  the  venerable  Missionary,  who  from  his 
retirement  in  Stratford  had  looked  with  sorrow  on 
the  public  discontents,  was  once  more  hopeful  that 
the  establishment  of  Bishops  in  this  country  might 
receive  the  attention  of  the  ministry.  He  had  not 
ceased  to  be  interested  in  the  College  at  New  York, 
and  Mr.  Cooper,  his  successor  in  the  Presidency,  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  spending  more  or  less  of  his 
vacations  with  him,  that  they  might  consult  together 

1  MS.  Letter  to  Wm.  S.  Johnson,  November  12,  1765. 


OP   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  301 

and  devise  good  things  for  its  welfare.  He  paid  a 
visit  to  New  York  in  May,  1766,  and  was  present  at 
the  annual  Commencement  held  on  the  20th  of  that 
month  in  Trinity  Church.  It  afforded  him  unspeak 
able  satisfaction  to  find  the  College  in  a  prosperous 
condition,  and  the  graduating  class  the  largest  hith 
erto  sent  forth. 

But  there  was  another  matter  which  interested  him 
at  the  time  quite  as  much  as  that  of  education.  The 
day  after  the  Commencement,  fourteen  clergymen, 
two  from  Connecticut  and  the  rest  from  the  provinces 
of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  held  a  Convention  at 
which  Johnson  presided  and  Dr.  Auchmuty  preached 
a  sermon.  The  most  important  business  transacted 
was  the  adoption  of  an  address  to  the  Society  on  the 
extreme  hardships  the  Church  in  America  labored  un 
der  for  want  of  Bishops.  It  added  to  the  moral  force 
of  the  address  that  two  young  men,  Mr.  Giles  of  New 
York,  and  Mr.  Wilson  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  been  to 
England  for  Holy  Orders,  had  just  been  lost  on  their 
return  in  a  ship  that  was  dashed  to  pieces  near  Cape 
Henlopen.  These  made  ten,  whose  precious  lives 
sickness  or  the  sea  claimed,  out  of  fifty-one  who  had 
gone  from  this  country  for  ordination  in  a  little  more 
than  forty  years.  It  was  an  awful  sacrifice  for  the 
sake  of  the  Church,  and  they  implored  that  it  might 
be  ended.  "  It  is  a  greater  loss,"  said  Johnson,  "  to 
the  Church  here  in  proportion  than  she  suffered  in 
the  times  of  Popish  persecution  in  England." 

While  the  clergy  were  holding  this  Convention,  a 
Synod  of  about  sixty  Presbyterians  met  at  New  York 
with  the  design,  it  was  said,  of  asking  the  General 
Assembly  of  Scotland  to  apply  to  the  Parliament  of 


302  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Great  Britain  for  an  act  of  incorporation  in  their  be 
half.  Reference  was  made  to  this  Synod  in  communi 
cating  the  address  of  the  clergy,  and  a  letter  from  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  which  is  among  the  last, 
if  not  the  very  last  that  he  wrote  to  his  venerated 
friend,  met  the  considerations  urged  then  and  previ 
ously,  and  touched  upon  another  point  of  great  im 
portance  :  — 

LAMBETH,  July  31,  1766. 

GOOD  DR.  JOHNSON,  —  I  am  much  ashamed,  that  I  have 
delayed  so  long  to  answer  your  letters,  and  still  more  grieved 
that  I  cannot  do  it  now  to  my  own  satisfaction  or  yours.  It 
is  very  probable,  that  a  Bishop  or  Bishops  would  have  been 
quietly  received  in  America  before  the  Stamp-act  was  passed 
here.  But  it  is  certain,  that  we  could  get  no  permission  here 
to  send  one.  Earnest  and  continued  endeavors  have  been 
used  with  our  successive  ministers,  but  without  obtaining 
more  than  promises  to  consider  and  confer  about  the  mat 
ter  ;  which  promises  have  never  been  fulfilled.  The  King 
hath  expressed  himself  repeatedly  in  favor  of  the  scheme  ; 
and  hath  proposed,  that  if  objections  are  imagined  to  lie 
against  other  places,  a  Protestant  Bishop  should  be  sent  to 
Quebec,  where  there  is  a  Popish  one,  and  where  there  are 
few  Dissenters  to  take  offence.  And  in  the  latter  end  of 
Mr.  Grenville's  ministry,  a  plan  of  an  ecclesiastical  estab 
lishment  for  Canada  was  formed,  on  which  a  Bishop  might 
easily  have  been  grafted,  and  was  laid  before  a  Committee 
of  Council.  But  opinions  differed  there ;  and  proper  per 
sons  could  not  be  persuaded  to  attend ;  and  in  a  while  the 
ministry  changed.  Incessant  opposition  was  made  to  the 
new  ministry ;  some  slight  hopes  were  given,  but  no  one 
step  taken.  Yesterday  the  ministry  was  changed  again,  as 
you  may  see  by  the  papers  ;  but  whether  any  change  will 
happen  in  our  concern,  and  whether  for  the  better  or  the 
worse,  I  cannot  so  much  as  guess.  Of  late  indeed  it  hath 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  303 

not  been  prudent  to  do  anything  unless  at  Quebec.  And 
therefore  the  Address  from  the  clergy  of  Connecticut,  which 
arrived  here  in  December  last,  and  that  from  the  clergy  of 
New  York  and  New  Jersey,  which  arrived  in  January,  have 
not  been  presented  to  the  King.  But  he  hath  been  ac 
quainted  with  the  purport  of  them,  and  directed  them  to 
be  postponed  to  a  fitter  time.  In  the  mean  while,  I  wish 
the  Bishop  of  London  would  take  out  a  patent  like  Bishop 
Gibson's,  only  somewhat  improved.  For  then  he  might  ap 
point  commissaries  ;  and  we  might  set  up  corresponding 
societies,  as  we  have  for  some  time  intended,  with  those 
commissaries  at  their  head.  He  appears  unwilling,  but  I 
hope  may  be  at  length  persuaded  to  it. 

Requests  have  been  made  to  me  and  other  Bishops,  first 
for  countenance,  then  for  contributions  to  Mr.  Wheelock's 
Indian  school.  My  answer  was  that  we  heartily  wished  suc 
cess  to  it;  and  intended  to  set  up  one  not  in  opposition, 
but  in  imitation  of  it ;  that  we  hoped  the  Dissenters  would 
sufficiently  support  Mr.  Wheelock's  undertaking  ;  but  could 
not  hope  that  they  would  contribute  anything  to  a  similar 
one  of  ours  ;  and  therefore  it  seemed  requisite,  that  Church 
men  should  do  their  best  for  ours  ;  though  if  any  would  be 
kind  to  theirs  also,  we  should  not  blame  them.  They  seemed 
pretty  well  satisfied.  My  first  notion  was,  that  we  might 
maintain  Indian  boys  at  Mr.  Wheelock's  school,  who  should 
afterwards  take  Episcopal  Orders.  But  Mr.  Apthorp  was 
clearly  of  opinion,  that  they  would  all  disappoint  our  ex 
pectations  in  that  respect.  Now  if  only  most,  or  many  of 
them  would,  it  will  be  absolutely  necessary,  that  we  should 
set  up  an  Episcopal  Indian  school ;  else  we  shall  both  neglect 
our  duty  and  lose  our  reputation.  But  we  shall  need  the 
best  advice  of  our  friends,  in  what  place  or  places,  and  un 
der  what  masters  and  regulations,  it  will  be  most  proper  to 
attempt  this.  And  the  sooner,  we  have  such  advice  the 
better  ;  for  the  distance  between  the  Society  and  the  scene 
of  their  business  is  extremely  inconvenient.  Mr.  Barton  of 
Lancaster  hath  conversed  on  this  subject  with  Sir  William 


304  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

Johnson,  who  hath  desired  to  be  proposed  for  a  member 
of  our  Society,  and  earnestly  recommends  the  Indians  to  our 
care  at  present.  We  have  sent  to  ask  further  information 
from  both  these  gentlemen  ;  and  shall  be  glad  of  it  from  all 
who  are  capable  of  giving  it. 

I  have  mentioned  our  late  and  former  losses  of  mission 
aries  to  the  King,  as  one  argument  for  Bishops.  He  is  thor 
oughly  sensible,  that  the  Episcopalians  are  his  best  friends  in 
America.  There  seems  no  likelihood  that  the  Scotch  Pres 
byterians  will  obtain  any  further  privileges  from  our  Parlia 
ment  for  their  American  brethren.  Nor  do  I  think  there  is 
any  considerable  increase  of  vehemence  against  Episcopacy 
here.  Declaimers  in  newspapers  are  not  much  to  be  minded ; 
nor  a  few  hot-headed  men  of  higher  rank.  I  entreat  you 
to  write  often  and  fully  to  me  concerning  all  the  Church 
affairs  of  America.  I  have  not  indeed  been  tolerably  reg 
ular  in  my  returns  to  your  letters.  Gout  and  business,  and 
principally  the  delusive  hope  that  a  little  time  would  pro 
duce  good  news,  have  hindered  me.  I  will  endeavor  to  do 
better,  if  God  spares  my  life.  But  at  least  your  informa 
tions  and  advice  will  be  always  highly  acceptable  and  use 
ful  to  Your  loving  brother, 

THO.  CANT. 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  305 


CHAPTER  XIH. 

REVIEW  OF  HUTCHINSON'S  PHILOSOPHY  ;  STUDY  OF  HEBREW 
AND  PUBLICATION  OF  GRAMMAR  ;  INDIAN  SCHOOL  ;  DEPART 
URE  OF  HIS  SON  FOR  ENGLAND  ;  CHANDLER'S  APPEAL  ;  COR 
RESPONDENCE  WITH  HIS  SON;  ENGLISH  ANCESTRY;  AND  DEATH 
OF  ARCHBISHOP  SECKER. 

A.  D.  1766-1768. 

THE  nest  of  Hutchinsonians,  which  his  younger  son 
found  at  Oxford  in  1756,1  was  by  this  time  well-nigh 
broken  up ;  but  he  had  neither  relinquished  their  phi 
losophy,  nor  ceased  to  read  their  books.  He  found 
leisure  in  his  retirement  to  review  the  studies  of  for 
mer  years,  and  reexamine  the  conclusions  which  he 
had  reached  on  philosophical  and  theological  subjects. 
It  gratified  him  that  he  was  under  no  necessity  of  es 
sentially  changing  his  opinions;  and  while  he  could 
not  approve  the  tendency  towards  extremes  in  some 
things,  he  still  leaned  to  the  side  of  Hutchinson  in 
the  controversy  which  arose  upon  his  writings,  and 
generally  accepted  them  as  teaching  the  truth.  He 
thought  he  saw  in  the  respectable  scholars  at  Oxford 2 

1  Mr.  Berkeley,  "the  very  worthy  son  of  his  great  father,  introduced  us  to  a 
very  valuable  set  of  Fellows  of  several  of  the  Colleges,  Hutchinsonians,  and  truly 
primitive  Christians,  who  yet  revere  the  memory  of  King  Charles  and  Archbishop 
Laud;  and  despise  preferments  and  honors  when  the  way  to  them  is  Heresy  and 
Deism."  —  MS.  Letter  of  Wm.  Johnson,  May  25,  1756. 

2  "  I  am  sorry  to  find  that  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  [Dr.   Lowth]  is  not  a  very  good 
friend  to  Dr.  Home,  but  you  will  readily  suppose  that  the  Hutchinsonians  are  not 
out  of  countenance  when  you  see  Home  is  head  of  Magdalen,  and  Wetherell  of  Uni 
versity  College,  Jones  in  a  good  living,  and  Berkeley  with  two,  and  in  the  high 
road  to  preferment  by  the  patronage  of  his  Grace."  —  MS.  Letter  of  Wm.  Sam'l 
Johnson,  March  15,  1768 

20 


306  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

who  favored  that  author's  views,  an  earnest  effort  for 
the  revival  of  Hebrew  literature,  and  as  this  was  a 
branch  of  study  upon  which  he  prided  himself,  he 
was  glad  of  anything  in  the  shape  of  new  light,  to 
guide  his  inquiries  and  help  to  a  proper  understand 
ing  of  the  original  tongue. 

It  was  about  this  time,  or  a  little  earlier,  that  he 
composed  a  small  English  Grammar  for  use  in  con 
ducting  the  preliminary  education  of  his  two  grand 
sons,  and  having  revised  his  Catechism  hitherto  issued, 
he  published  them  both  together,  in  the  hope  that 
they  might  serve  a  good  purpose  to  others. 

But  the  study  of  Hebrew  was  the  chief  delight  of 
his  quiet  hours.  For  many  years  he  had  entertained 
a  strong  opinion  that  as  this  was  "  the  first  language 
taught  by  God  himself  to  mankind,  and  was  really  the 
mother  and  fountain  of  all  language  and  eloquence, 
so  in  teaching,  it  would  be,  on  many  accounts,  vastly 
advantageous  to  begin  a  learned  education  with  that 
language,"  which  lends  to  all  others  and  borrows  from 
none.  He  set  himself,  therefore,  to  the  preparation 
of  a  Hebrew  Grammar  to  go  side  by  side  with  his 
English  Grammar ;  the  structure  of  the  two  lan 
guages  bearing  in  his  view  a  close  resemblance. 
While  engaged  in  this  work,  a  new  Hebrew  Lexicon, 
by  the  Rev.  John  Parkhurst,  was  sent  to  him,  and 
the  value  which  he  attached  to  this  publication  is  best 
Been  by  quoting  the  letter  which  he  addressed  to  the 
author  from 

STRATFORD,  CONN.,  N.  E. 

REV.  SIR,  —  I  humbly  hope  your  candor  and  goodness  will 
pardon  the  assurance  and  liberty  that  so  obscure,  remote,  and 
unknown  a  person  as  I  am,  takes  to  address  you  in  tlu's  man- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  307 

ner  ;  as  it  proceeds  from  a  well-meant  zeal  to  promote  the  in 
terest  of  religion  and  learning,  and  especially  the  study  of 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  in  this  my  native  country.  I  labored 
for  ten  years  in  founding  a  College  in  New  York,  and  I  hope 
with  good  success ;  but  it  growing  too  tedious  for  my  years, 
I  have  lately  retired  hither  into  a  delightful  country  parish, 
where  I  had  before  served  the  Society  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel  for  above  thirty  years.  And  having  great  health  and 
leisure  (thank  God),  I  am  still  pursuing  the  same  design  of 
promoting  the  study  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  to  which  but 
very  few  here  are  addicted,  and  I  could  think  of  no  better 
project  than  to  get  the  Grammar  of  it  studied  with  a  Gram 
mar  of  our  own  excellent  language  as  the  best  introduction 
to  what  is  called  a  learned  education. 

While  I  was  pursuing  this  design,  I  was  most  agreeably 
surprised  with  your  admirable  "  Lexicon,"  calculated  in  the 
best  manner  to  promote  my  favorite  views  ;  and  I  take  this 
opportunity  to  offer  you  my  most  hearty  thanks  for  th?«t 
excellent  work  which  I  hope  will  be  a  very  great  blessing  to 
this  as  well  as  to  our  mother  country.  And  since  I  must 
send  my  little  performance  home  to  be  printed,  as  we  have 
no  types  here,  I  humbly  take  the  liberty  to  beg  the  favor  of 
you  to  take  the  trouble  of  perusing  it,  and  if  you  judge  it 
may  be  of  any  good  use  to  the  purpose  I  aim  at,  to  correct 
whatever  mistakes  I  have  made  in  it,  and  to  recommend  it 
to  your  printer  to  print  it.  The  bearer  hereof  is  Mr.  Giles 
(who  has  transcribed  it  for  the  press).  He  goes  well  recom 
mended  by  the  clergy  here  to  ray  Lord  of  London  and  his 
Grace  and  the  Society  for  Holy  Orders  and  a  mission,  and  is 
very  desirous  of  being  a  factor  for  the  sale  of  as  many  as  we 
can  get  of  your  t;  Lexicon"  and  this  Grammar,  in  these  parts 
of  the  world.  I  am,  Reverend  Sir,  etc., 

S.  J. 

The  work  was  printed  by  W.  Faden,  London,  in 
1767,  and  four  years  afterwards  a  second  edition  of 
it,  "  corrected  and  much  amended,"  was  published  by 


308  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

the  same  bookseller,  with  the  title,  "  An  English  and 
Hebrew  Grammar,  being  the  First  short  Rudiments 
of  those  two  Languages,  taught  together/'  Its  re 
ceipt  was  acknowledged  with  approbation  by  Robert 
Lowth,  then  Bishop  of  Oxford,  a  scholar  whose  "  Prse- 
lections  on  Hebrew  Poetry  "  interested  Johnson,  and 
gave  him  a  high  opinion  of  their  author  as  introduc 
ing  a  new  era  in  sacred  literature.  The  publication 
was  remarkable  for  its  simplicit}^  and  attracted  the 
attention  of  several  men  of  letters.  He  had  been 
known  before  as  one  of  the  best  Hebrew  scholars  in 
the  country,  and  when  Dr.  Kennicott  undertook  to 
collate  all  the  Hebrew  manuscripts  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment,  in  England  and  other  parts  of  Europe,  he  sent 
an  inquiry  to  Johnson  through  Franklin,  who  was 
then  in  London ;  and  he,  in  communicating  it,  said, 
"  I  have  but  little  expectation  that  any  ancient  He 
brew  manuscripts  of  the  Bible  may  be  found  in  Amer 
ica  ;  but  if  such  have  possibly  strayed  thither,  I  think 
you,  who  are  so  well  skilled  in  that  language,  are  most 
likely  to  know  of  them/' 

The  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  at  the  May 
Session,  1766,  "  Upon  the  memorial  of  the  Rev.  Elea- 
zar  Wheelock,"  revived  a  brief  throughout  the  Col 
ony,  for  the  support  and  encouragement  of  the  Indian 
Charity-school  under  his  care  at  Lebanon.  Printed 
copies  of  the  act  were  delivered  to  the  several  min 
isters  of  the  Gospel,  who  were  directed  to  read  the 
same  to  their  congregations  and  fix  a  time  for  con 
tributions.  Johnson,  who  had  always  felt  a  compassion 
for  the  poor  Indians,  and  tried,  on  various  occasions, 
to  make  God's  way  known  among  them,  showed  his 
Christian  and  catholic  spirit  when,  upon  publishing 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  309 

the  brief  to  his  people,  he  urged  them  to  contribute 
cheerfully  and  generously  to  promote  so  good  a  work. 
"  If  any,"  said  he,  "  are  reluctant  because  Mr.  Whee- 
lock  is  not  of  our  communion,  we  should  remember 
St.  Paul's  blessed  temper  which  he  expresses  on  the 
like  occasion,  '  whether  the  Gospel  be  preached  of 
envy  or  of  good  will  —  I  therein  do  rejoice,  yea  and 
will  rejoice  ; '  and  this  we  may  the  rather  do  as  this 
gentleman  seems  to  express  a  truly  Christian  temper. 
And  he  has  certainly  fallen  upon  the  right  method  for 
converting  the  heathen,  by  civilizing  their  children  and 
teaching  them  husbandry,  and  the  arts  and  manufac 
tures,  while  he  teaches  them  Christianity.  I  hope, 
therefore,  you  will  liberally  promote  this  good  work, 
according  to  your  ability,  by  coming  prepared  next 
Lord's  day  after  service,  to  make  your  offerings  to  that 
purpose." 

In  acknowledging  the  "  generous  contribution," 
Mr.  Wheelock  was  pleased  to  compliment  him  for  his 
English  Grammar  and  Catechism,  and  was  so  im 
pressed  with  the  value  of  the  latter  that  he  proposed 
to  the  author  a  slight  change  in  the  answer  to  one 
question,  which,  if  he  would  make,  he  promised  to 
use  his  influence  to  have  the  whole  reprinted  for  the 
benefit  of  children,  particularly  in  the  Indian  schools. 
The  change  involved  a  nice  doctrinal  point,  having 
reference  to  a  new  heart  and  a  new  life. 

Dr.  Johnson  agreed  with  Archbishop  Seeker  in  the 
opinion  that  the  Society  should  establish  an  Episcopal 
Indian  school,  and  thought  that  with  a  Bishop  placed 
at  Albany  or  Schenectady,  such  a  one  might  be  car 
ried  on  under  his  eye  and  direction  vastly  to  the 
credit  and  reputation  of  the  Church.  He  even  wrote 


310  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

to  Sir  William  Johnson,  Bart.,  the  British  agent  for 
Indian  affairs  in  New  York,  who  was  a  Churchman 
and  a  member  of  the  Society,  to  consult  him  about  the 
best  place  in  which  to  set  up  a  school  after  the  general 
plan  of  Mr.  Wheelock,1  but  his  suggestion  was  event 
ually  overlooked  in  the  consideration  of  other  things. 
The  Colony  of  Connecticut  was  deeply  interested 
in  the  title  to  a  large  tract  of  land,  which  one  Mason 
had  raised  a  dispute  about  in  behalf  of  the  Mohegan 
Indians.  Twice  it  had  been  determined  here  in  the 
Colony's  favor  by  disinterested  Commissioners,  acting 
under  the  appointment  of  the  King  and  Council ;  but 
still  the  great  question  was  unsettled  ;  and  Dr.  Wil 
liam  Samuel  Johnson  was  selected  as  a  special  agent 
to  the  Court  of  Great  Britain  to  manage  the  case  and 
bring  it  to  a  righteous  conclusion.  "  I  know  not,"  said 
the  father  in  a  note  introducing  him  to  Archbishop 
Seeker,  "  by  what  fate  it  is,  but  quite  contrary  to  all 
my  expectations,  the  people  of  this  Colony,  notwith 
standing  their  aversion  to  the  Church,  have  chosen 
my  son  a  member  of  their  Council,  and  appointed  him 
their  agent  to  defend  them  in  a  cause  of  great  im 
portance  before  the  King  and  Council."  He  departed 
from  New  York  the  day  before  Christmas,  1766,  and 
arrived  in  Falmouth  harbor  on  the  30th  of  January. 
The  letters  which  he  carried  with  him  gave  him  ac 
cess  to  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  Church,  as  well 
as  to  the  highest  officials  in  the  Government,  and  he 
used  his  pen  freely  in  communicating  to  his  father 
whatever  he  saw  and  heard  that  might  interest  him 
personally,  or  tend  to  affect  the  progress  of  Christian- 

1  The  Indian  Charity-school  at  Lebanon  was  incorporated  with  Dartmouth  Col 
lege,  New  Hampshire,  in  1771,  and  Dr.  Wheelock  made  President. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  311 

ity  and  the  welfare  of  America.  "  Yesterda}',"  said  he 
in  his  first  letter  to  him  after  reaching  London,  "I 
went  to  Lambeth,  and  was  introduced  to  his  Grace, 
and  happily  met  there  the  Bishops  of  London  and 
Bristol.  The  Archbishop  received  me  very  kindly  and 
inquired  very  kindly  as  well  as  minutely  after  your 
health.  He  assured  me  he  would,  if  possible,  attend 
the  hearing  of  the  Mohegan  cause  when  it  should 
come  on,  and  hoped  to  find  it  as  just  as  I  had  repre 
sented  it." 

The  next  letter  mentioned  his  presence  at  the  An 
niversary  Sermon  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel,  preached  February  20,  1767,  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Mary-le-Bow,  by  Dr.  Ewer,  Bishop  of 
Llandaff.  Owing  to  a  bad  delivery  and  his  own  bad 
hearing  he  "  could  take  up  very  few  sentences/'  but 
he  knew  he  dwelt  "  largely  upon  the  subject  of  Amer 
ican  Bishops."- 

The  following  extract  is  from  the  same  letter :  — 

Last  Sunday  I  had  the  pleasure  to  hear  the  Archbishop 
preach,  and  to  receive  the  Sacrament  with  him.  He  is  truly 
an  excellent  preacher,  even  yet  full  of  life  and  vigor ;  uses  no 
glasses,  and  speaks  with  great  ease ;  he  has  a  fine  voice,  a 
decent,  emphatical  gesture,  and  an  affectionate  manner  which 
engages  the  closest  attention.  His  language  is  pure  and  cor 
rect,  his  sentiments  just  and  masterly,  yet  adapted  to  the 
meanest  capacities  ;  he  enters  very  little  into  speculative 
points,  but  exhorts  to  the  practice  of  religion  with  great 
force,  warmth,  and  energy.  After  service  I  dined  with  his 
Chaplains,  Dr.  Stinton  of  Oxford,  and  Dr.  Porteus  of  Cam 
bridge,  both  of  them  very  worthy  men.  I  then  received  an 
invitation  to  dine  with  his  Grace  the  next  day,  which  I  com- 

1  This  was  the  celebi'ated  sermon  which  excited  the  hostility  of  Dr.  Charles 
Chauncy  of  Boston,  an  able  Congregational  divine,  who  thereupon  renewed  the  war 
of  pamphlets  in  this  country,  which  had  recently  been  closed. 


312  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

plied  with,  and  found  at  his  table  only  Mrs.  Talbot  and  her 
daughter,  who  live  with  the  Archbishop,  Lady  Carter,  the 
Bishop  of  St.  David's,  Dr.  Moss,  and  Dr.  Porteus.  The  en 
tertainment  was  very  elegant,  and  the  Archbishop  extremely 
facetious,  easy,  and  agreeable.  He  carves  himself,  helps 
everybody,  and  does  the  honors  of  the  table  with  an  extreme 
good  grace.  This  is  telling  you  trifles,  but  I  imagine  every 
circumstance  with  respect  to  the  Archbishop  will  be  agree 
able  to  you.  You  cannot  imagine  how  much  I  wished  you 
had  been  there.  The  conversation  turned  much  upon  Amer 
ican  affairs,  and  from  the  course  of  it,  I  am  convinced  that 
such  is  the  situation  here  at  present  that  you  must  not  ex 
pect  anything  can  be  soon  done  relative  to  the  important 
object  you  have  so  much  at  heart. 

This  "  important  object  "  was  the  American  Episco 
pate,  and  a  new  effort  was  now  made  to  remove,  if  pos 
sible,  all  opposition  to  it  in  both  countries.  So  early 
as  September,  1766,  Dr.  Chandler  of  Elizabethtown 
wrote  thus  to  his  venerable  friend  at  Stratford  :  "  By 
a  letter  from  Mr.  Cooper  of  a  late  date,  I  find  that 
you  continue  to  think  that  something  should  be  pub 
lished  on  the  subject  of  American  Bishops,  and  that  I 
ought  to  undertake  it.  As  to  the  former  of  these 
points,  I  have  for  a  long  time  been  convinced  of  the 
necessity  of  it,  in  order  to  bring  the  Dissenters  and 
some  of  the  Church  people,  and  perhaps,  horresco 
refer  ens,  some  of  our  clergy  into  a  just  way  of  think 
ing  on  the  subject.  But  as  to  the  other  point,  as  I 
am  conscious  of  my  own  unfitness  for  the  task,  I 
have  never  been  so  happy  as  to  be  able  to  join  with 
you  in  opinion." 

The  matter  took  definite  shape  afterwards  when  at 
a  "  general  Convention "  of  clergymen  from  New 
York  and  New  Jersey,  with  a  few  from  other  prov- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  313 

inces,  Chandler  was  appointed  to  prepare  an  appeal 
to  the  public,  and  he  assured  Johnson,  who  but  for  a 
tremor  in  his  hand  would  have  written  it  himself,  that 
not  a  page  should  be  printed  until  it  had  been  submit 
ted  to  his  examination.  He  was  indebted  to  him  for  a 
plan  of  the  pamphlet,  which  he  worked  up  by  degrees, 
and  furnished  early  in  the  spring  of  1767.  For  on  the 
15th  of  April  in  that  year,  he  wrote,  announcing  a 
proposed  visit  of  President  Cooper  to  Connecticut,  and 
said  among  other  things,  — 

Mr.  Cooper  will  bring  you  my  papers  concerning  American 
Bishops.  I  am  ashamed  that  they  should  be  offered  for  your 
inspection  in  so  rough  and  imperfect  a  state  ;  but  my  abso 
lute  inability  to  gain  time  to  write  them  over  again  and  give 
them  a  general  correction,  must  be  my  apology.  Before  they 
go  to  the  press,  which  will  be  some  time  in  June,  I  must 
transcribe  them  ;  and  by  that  time  I  shall  be  able  to  improve 
them  much  by  the  assistance  of  friends.  Even  without  any 
such  assistance,  I  think  I  could  make  them  less  unworthy  of 
the  notice  of  the  public,  by  straightening  the  crooked  places, 
and  smoothing  the  rough  ones,  besides  other  amendments. 
But  I  begin  to  be  disturbed  in  proportion  as  the  time  of 
publication  draws  nigh ;  and  I  must  beg  the  favor  of  you 
to  be  on  this  occasion,  what  you  have  ever  been  on  all  occa 
sions,  my  fidus  Achates,  my  mentor,  my  guardian,  and  con 
ductor.  Every  instance  of  your  severity  I  shall  esteem  as  a 
proof  of  your  affection  ;  and  should  your  pen  be  as  sharp  as 
the  point  of  a  javelin,  it  would  give  me  not  pain,  but  pleas 
ure. 

You  will  therefore  not  be  sparing  in  your  animadversions, 
for  the  credit's  sake  of  a  young  adventurer,  who  has  been 
pushed  forward  by  your  own  impulse,  and  for  the  sake  of 
the  cause,  which  must  considerably  depend  on  the  success  of 
this  publication.  I  am  sorry  the  papers  cannot  be  left  longer 
in  your  hands  than  Mr.  Cooper  is  with  you  ;  but  when  I  was 


314  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

appointed  by  the  Convention  to  draw  them  up,  I  insisted 
upon  a  Committee  to  assist  me  ;  and  as  Mr.  Seabury  is  one 
of  that  Committee,  and  has  never  had  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  them  but  in  a  very  cursory  manner  last  week  in  New 
York,  I  promised  him,  that  after  Mr.  Cooper's  return  from 
Stratford  they  should  be  left  in  his  hands.  In  my  opinion 
the  most  blundering  part  of  them  at  present  is  in  the  passage 
relating  to  Sir  W.  Johnson,  of  whom  something  is  said  that 
ought  by  no  means  to  be  said  without  his  particular  permis 
sion.  And  yet  his  testimony  in  favor  of  the  usefulness  of  an 
Episcopate  towards  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  is  of  too 
much  weight  to  be  omitted. 

The  publication  of  the  "  Appeal  "  did  not  at  first 
fulfill  the  expectations  of  its  author.  He  was  disap 
pointed  that  the  clergy  were  not  more  active  in  cir 
culating  it,  though  he  knew  previously  that  those 
southward  would  regard  it  with  little  favor.  Shortly 
before  it  appeared  Dr.  Chandler  made  a  journey  into 
Maryland,  and  in  a  letter  to  Johnson,  giving  a  humor 
ous  account  of  the  agricultural  skill  of  the  people, 
and  a  deplorable  one  of  the  state  of  the  Church,  he 
said,  "  Of  about  forty-five  clergymen  in  the  province, 
five  or  six  are  of  good  character,  whose  names  should 
be  mentioned  with  honor,  ....  but  to  hear  the 
character  of  the  rest,  from  the  inhabitants,  would 
make  the  ears  of  any  sober  heathen  to  tingle.  You 
may  be  sure  that  they  are  much  averse  to  having  an 
American  Episcopate,  and  they  are  averse  to  their 
numbers  being  increased,  or  their  vacancies  supplied 
from  the  northward." 

The  "  Appeal "  was  reprinted  in  London,  and 
sharply  attacked  there,  as  it  had  been  here  by  Dr. 
Cbauncy  and  other  Dissenters.  A  passage  from  a 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  315 

letter  of  its  author  to  Dr.  Johnson,  written  at  the 
close  of  the  summer  of  1768,  will  show  the  nature  of 
these  attacks.  "  You  see,"  speaking  of  the  reprints, 
"  that  it  has  been  answered  by  a  Presbyterian  there  ; 
and  I  find  that  the  '  London  Chronicle  '  has  intro 
duced  the  subject  to  the  view  of  the  populace  ;  several 
pieces  having  been  published  therein,  but  all  of  them 
by  Chauncy's  friends.  In  one  of  them  an  account 
is  given  of  the  answer  made  by  the  very  learned 
Dr.  Chauncy  to  a  piece  written  in  favor  of  American 
Bishops  ~by  one  Chandler.  In  another,  it  is  asserted 
that  Dr.  Chandler  says  that  an  American  Episcopate 
is  upon  the  point  of  being  established,  and  that  a  tax 
is  to  be  laid  on  the  Americans  for  the  support  of  it. 
It  is  astonishing  that  such  falsehoods  as  these  can  be 
suffered  to  go  unanswered,  and  that  no  methods  are 
taken  by  the  guardians  of  the  Church  to  prevent  the 
propagation  and  growth  of  them." 

It  was  difficult  for  Dr.  Johnson,  at  this  period,  to 
write  long  letters  to  his  son,  but  he  managed  to  keep 
him  well  informed  of  the  state  of  political  and  relig 
ious  feeling  on  this  side  ;  and  weighed  thoroughly 
what  was  communicated  to  him  in  reply.  In  a  letter 
from  Stratford  dated  June  8,  1767,  he  expressed  his 
pleasure  at  hearing  that  temperance  was  so  much  in 
fashion  in  England,  and  added,  — 

I  wish  you  could  have  said  the  same  of  religion  and  all 
other  virtues,  but  upon  the  whole  I  doubt  the  times  are 
very  deplorable,  especially  on  account  of  the  rage  of  avarice, 
ambition,  and  lust,  which  seem  to  threaten  a  dissolution. 
What  else  can  be  expected  from  such  an  unsettled  state  of 
the  ministry,  owing  to  such  a  perpetual  and  violent  justling 
about  in  and  out  ?  What  can  a  Pitt  do  in  such  a  state,  even 


316  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

if  he  mean  ever  so  well,  which  after  all  is,  perhaps,  as  well 
to  be  doubted  of  him  as  other  men  ?  If  they  cannot  agree 
to  do  us  any  mischief,  so  they  can  neither,  for  the  same  reason, 
agree  to  do  us  any  good  ;  and  that  will  be  a  great  mischief, 
especially  since  what  concerns  the  interest  of  religion  here 
is  totally  neglected  and  despised. 

I  am  extremely  glad  you  heard  and  communicated  with 
my  great  and  good  friend  the  Archbishop.  Your  character  of 
him  as  a  preacher  and  at  his  table  is  extremely  beautiful  and 
amiable.  I  wish  with  you  I  could  have  been  with  you.  I 
must  believe  him  to  be  one  of  the  first  characters  of  the  age. 
I  am  indeed  glad  if  he  took  in  good  part  my  last  long  letter. 
I  was  afraid  it  would  be  of  hard  digestion. 

The  Society  have  truly  done  you  a  great  honor,  in  making 
you  their  agent  in  the  Hampshire  affair,  and  I  am  glad  you 
have  so  good  hopes  of  that,  and  that  you  have  audience  with 
the  Earl  of  Shelburne.  It  is  said  here  with  triumph  that  he 
told  one  Stockton  of  New  Jersey,  who  I  see  has  been  in 
Scotland,  and  I  suppose  is  the  Synod's  agent  against  Bishops, 
that  there  is  no  occasion  for  Bishops  in  America.  I  wish 
you  may  be  able  to  convince  him  to  the  contrary,  as  I  hope 
you  will  by  Dr.  Chandler's  "  Appeal,"  which  I  will  send  you 
as  soon  as  printed. 

The  son,  in  his  next  letter,  observed :  "  I  doubt  not 
Lord  Shelburne  said  as  you  have  been  told.  I  wish 
he  was  the  only  one  amongst  the  ministers  of  that 
opinion.  I  fear  it  is  universal,  and  the  common  senti 
ment  of  all  the  leaders  of  all  parties,  and  that,  per 
haps,  of  all  others  in  which  they  are  most  agreed. 
The  '  Appeal '  you  mention,  however  well  drawn  up, 
will,  I  fear,  have  very  little  effect.  Perhaps  the  more 
you  stir  about  this  matter  at  present,  the  worse  it  will 
be."  In  the  same  letter,  he  took  occasion  to  speak  of 
Archbishop  Seeker,  characterizing  him  as  certainly 
one  of  the  best  of  men.  "I  can  clear  up,"  he  said, 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  317 

"  whatever  has  seemed  dubious  in  his  conduct  or 
character,  and  shall  do  it  when  I  return  to  America. 
But  the  Court  is  not  a  scene  for  such  good  men  to 
act  in,  and  he  wisely  keeps  himself  to  his  own  prov 
ince  ;  his  diligence  and  condescension  would  surprise 
you ;  he  excuses  himself  from  no  labors,  assiduities,  or 
attendance  where  he  has  the  least  prospect  of  doing 
good ;  he  is  beloved  most  by  those  who  know  him 
best ;  even  the  most  profligate  reverence  him." 

Besides  attending  to  the  business  of  his  agency, 
which  was  protracted  beyond  his  expectation,  and  hav 
ing  interviews  with  British  Lords,  who  were  occupied 
far  more  with  material  comforts  than  religious  ques 
tions,  the  son  found  time  to  make  several  journeys 
into  the  country ;  some  for  the  benefit  of  his  health, 
and  others  for  the  sake  of  observation  and  historic  cul 
ture.  In  returning  to  London  from  one  of  these,  he 
went  out  of  his  course  to  visit  at  Bray  the  family  of 
the  late  Bishop  of  Cloyne.  His  friend,  the  Doctor,  was 
not  at  home,  but  his  mother,  the  widow  of  Berkeley, 
made  amends  in  some  degree  for  his  absence,  whom 
he  described  to  his  father  thus  :  "  She  is  the  finest  old 
lady  I  ever  saw ;  sensible,  lively,  facetious,  and  benev 
olent.  She  insinuates  herself  at  the  first  acquaintance 
into  one's  esteem,  and  begets  a  high  opinion  of  her 
virtues.  She  received  me  very  affectionately,  and 
remembered  America,  and  you  in  particular  with 
great  regard,  and  was  pleased  to  say  that  the  Bishop 
and  she  had  more  pleasure  in  your  acquaintance  than 
any  other  person's  while  they  were  in  that  country." 

In  October,  1767,  he  made  a  tour  into  Yorkshire, 
and  the  agreeable  letter  which  he  wrote  after  reach 
ing  his  destination  has  more  than  a  family  value  :  — 


318  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

YORK,  October  17,  1767. 

HONORED  SIR,  —  I  received  yours  of  the  llth  of  July  the 
day  before  I  left  London,  on  my  tour  this  way,  and  as  I  have 
been  in  motion  ever  since,  could  not  write  before.  I  am  sur 
prised  that  there  should  be  so  long  an  interval  as  three 
months  between  my  letters,  which  I  repeat  very  often  ;  how 
ever,  I  hope  it  was  not  many  days  after  you  wrote,  before  you 
had  intelligence,  and  that  you  will  not  again  have  so  long  a 
delay,  unless  it  be  in  the  depth  of  winter,  when  it  may  in 
deed  be  expected.  The  favorable  account  you  give  me  of 
your  own  and  my  family's  health  gives  me  the  greatest  pleas 
ure,  and  I  bless  God  for  it  as  I  do  for  my  own,  which  I  find 
much  confirmed  by  my  ride  here,  which  I  was  advised  to  take 
for  that  purpose,  both  the  exercise  and  the  country  air  having 
been  very  beneficial  to  me,  and  perfectly  recovered  me  from 
my  late  indisposition. 

It  gave  me  concern  to  find  you  were  in  danger  of  some 
trouble  in  Church  matters,  and  especially  that  my  old  friend 
Jabez  Hurd  should  have  any  hand  in  it,  who  I  hoped  would 
use  all  his  influence  to  preserve  peace  and  quietness  ;  by  this 
time,  however,  I  hope  matters  are  settled  again ;  and  indeed 
what  can  you  fear  with  such  a  weight  as  the  newly  acquired 
friendship  you  mention  must  bring  with  it  ? 

I  see  nothing  amiss  in  the  letters  you  inclose  me,  and 
shall  deliver  them  as  soon  as  I  have  opportunity  for  it ;  when 
I  came  out,  those  to  whom  they  are  directed  were  all  out 
of  town.  I  spoke  to  Faden  the  morning  I  came  away  to 
get  Foster's  Bible,  which  he  said  he  would  do,  but  chose  to 
take  Mr.  Parkhurst's  opinion  of  it  first,  which  he  would  have 
against  my  return ;  and  as  to  the  second  part  of  the  "  Intro 
duction,"  etc.,  it  is  not  yet  brought  to  the  press,  being  the 
composition  of  a  gentleman  for  the  benefit  of  his  own  school, 
who  delays  the  publication  till  his  own  pupils  are  ready  to 
make  use  of  it. 

I  thank  y ou  for  sending  your  bill,  and  will  get  the  pictures 
you  mention  if  to  be  had,  but  fear  there  is  no  plate  of  the 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  319 

Bishop  of  Oxford  or  Lord  Lyttleton,  if  there  be  of  the  Bishop 
of  Carlisle.  The  latter  are  two  as  indifferent  faces  as  are  to 
be  seen  in  the  House  of  Lords,  especially  Lord  Lyttleton, 
who  is  a  lean,  long-visaged,  crooked,  shriveled  old  gentle 
man  ;  you  would  think  him  in  a  consumption  ;  his  voice  too 
is  very  bad,  but  when  he  speaks,  as  he  does  pretty  often, 
it  is  always  very  sensibly,  and  he  is  heard  with  great  at 
tention.1 

When  I  came  to  Kingston-upon-Hull,  I  found  Mr.  Bell, 
with  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  the  town  at  a  turtle  feast, 
at  the  inn  I  put  up  at.  I  introduced  myself  to  him,  and  he 
me  to  the  Mayor,  etc.,  and  after  some  time  to  his  lady,  who 
was  very  well  pleased  to  see  and  acknowledge  me  as  a  re 
lation.  She  is  a  worthy,  sensible  woman,  but  has  few  me 
morials  of  the  family  ;  both  her  parents  having  died  when 
she  was  not  two  years  old.  Her  father  was  a  lawyer  and 
died  at  the  age  of  thirty-two.  Her  grandfather  lived  upon 
his  estate  (without  any  profession),  which  I  find  was  very 
considerable.  Her  great  uncle  was  a  Doctor  of  Physic,  emi 
nent  in  his  profession  and  by  his  monument  in  Cherry-Burton 
Church  (which  I  visited  as  well  as  the  family  seat  there),  it 
appears  he  died  the  1st  of  November,  1724,  at  the  age  of 
ninety-four,  having  survived  his  wife,  and  seven  out  of  nine 
children,  who  all  died  without  issue,  and  the  two  which  sur 
vived  him  being  females  never  married,  by  which  means  the 
whole  estate  came  to  Mrs.  Bell.  This  old  Dr.  Johnson  re 
tained  his  memory,  etc.  to  the  last,  and  as  he  remembered 
the  transactions  of  almost  a  century,  had  you  happened  to 
have  met  with  him,  when  you  were  here  in  1723,  he  could 
doubtless  have  told  you  the  circumstances  of  the  emigration 
of  our  ancestors,  no  traces  of  which  can  now  be  discovered 


l  "  Since  you  wanted  Lord  Lyttleton's  picture,  I  got  an  acquaintance  of  mine  to 
mention  it  to  his  Lordship  and  know  of  him  whether  he  had  any  plate ;  and  your  be 
ing  an  American  who  had  a  value  for  his  writings,  he  desired  his  compliments  to 
you  and  thanks  for  taking  so  much  notice  of  him,  but  said  there  never  had  been  any 
picture  taken  of  him,  though  his  bookseller  had  requested  one  to  prefix  to  his  Life 
of  Henry  //.,  and  perhaps  he  should  consent  to  it  when  he  had  finished  that  work." 
—  MS.  Letter,  Febwary  6,  1768. 


320  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

here.  The  arms  are  not  the  same  with  those  we  have  as 
sumed.  I  have  taken  a  note  of  them,  and  shall  examine  at 
the  "  Herald's  "  office  when  I  return  to  London.  If,  at  this 
distance,  any  evidence  of  our  relation  could  be  imagined  to 
arise  from  similarity  of  countenance,  Mrs.  Bell  and  I  might 
pass  very  well  for  brother  and  sister,  except  that  her  eyes 
are  very  black.  Her  eldest  child,  a  daughter  about  thirteen, 
is  exactly  our  Polly,  with  a  little  longer  face,  and  the  other 
very  like  Betsey.  Their  son  I  did  not  see,  being  at  a  distant 
school.  Whether  we  are  related  or  not,  they  were  really 
very  civil,  and  as  much  so  as  they  could  have  been  with  the 
clearest  proof  of  it,  and  desired  me  to  present  their  affec 
tionate  compliments  to  you  and  all  the  family. 

Nothing  very  material  has  occurred  here,  unless  it  be  the 
death  of  the  Duke  of  York,  who  is  not  very  greatly  lamented 
(except  by  the  Royal  family  and  his  own  domestics),  though 
we  are  all  obliged  to  go  into  deep  mourning  for  him. 

I  congratulate  you  on  the  anniversary  of  our  birthdays, 
and  hope  the  next  we  may  celebrate  together,  in  agreeable 
remembrance  of  my  present  rambles.  I  shall  set  out  in  a 
few  days  on  my  return  to  London,  and  shall  write  again  by 
the  first  conveyance  after  I  get  to  town ;  and  in  the  mean 
time  am,  with  the  tenderest  love  to  my  dear  wife  and  all  the 
children, 

Honored  Sir,  your  most  dutiful  son  and  humble  servant, 

WM.  SAM'L  JOHNSON. 

The  trouble  in  the  parish,  referred  to  in  this  letter, 
was  not  very  serious,  and  appears  to  have  grown  out 
of  a  desire  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Johnson's  friends  to 
furnish  him  with  some  aid  in  his  ministrations.  His 
infirmities  had  become  so  great  that  at  times  he  was 
unable  to  discharge  his  public  duties,  and  a  "  sore 
ness  in  his  legs/'  the  result  partly  of  breaking  one 
of  them  about  twenty  years  before,  confined  him  to 
the  house  several  weeks,  in  the  winter  season.  Mr. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  321 

John  Tyler,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College  and  a  theo 
logical  student  of  his,  who  was  about  to  proceed  to 
England  for  ordination,  was  thought  of  as  a  perma 
nent  assistant ;  but  opposition  was  raised  to  him  on 
the  ground  that  he  was  not  a  very  good  reader  and 
did  not  promise  to  make  much  of  a  preacher,  and  a 
few  of  the  parishioners  therefore  did  not  wish  to  see 
him  in  a  position  where,  according  to  the  natural 
course  of  things,  he  would  succeed  to  the  Kectorship. 
Dr.  Johnson,  not  less  than  the  Church  of  England  in 
the  Colonies,  lost  a  firm  and  noble  friend  in  the  death 
of  Archbishop  Seeker.  They  were  kindred  spirits. 
They  were  "  loving  brothers,"  as  far  as  two  men  of 
nearly  the  same  age  could  be  so,  without  having  seen 
each  other  face  to  face,  or  known  each  other  only  in  a 
long  and  affectionate  correspondence.  The  letter  of 
his  son  which  brought  the  intelligence  of  his  decease 
was  one  of  the  saddest  that  could  have  come  to  him 
at  that  crisis.  It  is  worthy  of  being  spread  upon 
these  pages,  for  the  facts  it  contains  and  the  counsels 
it  gave  :  — 

LONDON,  August  12,  1768. 

HONORED  SIK,  —  I  must  not  fail  by  this  packet  to  ac 
quaint  you  (though  I  imagine  Mr.  Tyler  did  not  leave  the 
Downs  before  the  melancholy  intelligence  reached  him)  of 
the  death  of  our  great  and  good  friend,  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  in  whom  religion  in  general,  and  particularly 
the  Church  in  America,  have  lost  their  best  friend  in  this 
Country.  His  physicians  and  friends  flattered  us  with  hopes 
that  he  might  recover  from  this  disorder,  and  continue  yet 
some  time ;  but  for  my  own  part  I  have  been,  ever  since  I 
saw  him  last,  about  a  month  ago,  satisfied  he  was  drawing 
near  his  end.  The  immediate  occasion  of  his  death  was  the 
misfortune  of  breaking  his  thigh  bone,  which  happened  on 


322  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

Sunday  evening  the  31st  of  July,  as  he  was  endeavoring  to 
raise  himself  hastily  from  his  couch  ;  it  was  immediately  set 
by  the  king's  surgeons,  and  he  was  easy  and  more  comfort 
able  than  could  have  been  expected  after  such  an  accident, 
but  soon  grew  worse,  and  on  Wednesday,  the  3d  inst.,  he  ex 
pired.  When  his  body  was  opened,  it  appeared  that  his 
thigh  bone  was  extremely  decayed,  and  the  physicians  ex 
pressed  their  astonishment,  that  he  could  have  lived  so  long 
under  so  much  pain  as  he  must  have  endured,  for  some  time 
past  with  the  gout,  rheumatism,  and  gravel,  by  all  which  he 
was  sorely  afflicted,  and  his  constitution  quite  worn  out.  He 
was  interred  privately,  according  to  his  own  orders,  in  Lam 
beth  churchyard. 

Thus  we  must  bid  adieu  to  one  of  the  best  of  men.  God's 
will  be  done  !  He  can  and  certainly  will  take  care  of  His  own 
cause  and  interest  in  the  world,  but  in  truth  I  see  no  prospect 
at  present  that  anybody  here  will  make  good  the  Archbishop's 
ground.  Several  of  the  Bishops  are  indeed  very  worthy  men, 
but  none  of  them  in  my  opinion  by  any  means  so  well  quali 
fied  for  that  high  station  as  the  late  Archbishop.  It  does 
not  yet  appear  who  will  succeed  him  ;  almost  every  Bishop 
has  been  named  ;  at  present  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield  and 
Coventry,  Dr.  Cornwallis,  is  most  talked  of,  and  he  and  the 
Bishop  of  London  seem  to  stand  the  fairest  chance ;  but  in 
terest  may  give  it  to  another,  and  it  is  difficult  to  say  who, 
at  present,  is  most  in  favor  at  Court. 

But  from  none  of  them,  I  fear,  may  religion  in  America 
expect  that  attention  and  aid  which  it  has  formerly  had. 
The  Church  of  England  there  should  in  fact  think  more  of 
taking  care  of  itself.  The  Society  will  indeed,  I  trust,  still 
continue  to  afford  their  friendly  assistance,  but  even  that  is  a 
precarious  dependence,  and  I  wish  my  countrymen  not  to  rely 
too  much  upon  it,  but  prepare  themselves  as  far  as  possible  to 
stand  upon  their  own  ground.  The  affection  between  that 
country  and  this  seems  to  be  every  day  decreasing,  and  the 
growing  jealousies  on  both  sides  threaten  the  destruction  of 
all  our  harmony  and  happiness  ;  already  there  is  hardly  any 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  323 

other  cement  left  between  us  beside  the  interest  founded  in 
trade,  and  even  that  is  declining.  Let  us  look  forward  and 
see  where  these  things  must  end,  and  consider  what  must 
probably  be  soon  the  state  of  that  country  and  this.  I  was 
going  to  imagine  it  with  respect  to  religion.  But  in  truth  I 
dare  not  pursue  these  reflections  farther  upon  paper.  Let 
them  remain  for  the  subjects  of  future,  but  alas !  distant 
conversation,  for  I  see  little  prospect  that  I  may  spend  next 
winter  with  you  at  Stratford,  or  that  I  can  leave  this  country 
before  next  spring.  I  almost  say  with  David,  "  Woe  is  me 
that  I  am  constrained  to  dwell  with  Mesech,  and'  to  have  my 
habitation  among  the  tents  of  Kedar ; "  but  we  must  sub 
mit  and  leave  it  to  Providence,  which  orders  all  things  for 
the  best. 

I  am  just  now  happy  in  receiving  your  favor  of  the  10th 
of  June,  by  which  I  find  you  were  all  well  at  that  time. 
God  be  thanked  for  it,  and  for  the  perfect  health  I  enjoy.  I 
shall  forward  your  letter  to  Dr.  Berkeley,  who  is  now  at 
Canterbury,  and  will  bring  Pike's  "  Lexicon,"  as  you  advise, 
for  Billy,  who,  I  rejoice  greatly  to  find,  proceeds  so  rapidly 
in  his  studies.  With  my  tenderest  love  to  him,  my  dear 
wife,  and  all  the  children,  and  compliments  to  all  friends, 
I  remain,  honored  Sir, 

Your  most  dutiful  son  and  humble  servant, 

WM.  SAM'L  JOHNSON. 

August  13. 

I  inclose  you  this  morning's  paper,  by  which  it  appears 
that  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield  is  nominated  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury ;  you  have  also  some  account  of  the  late  Arch 
bishop's  will,  and  a  list  of  his  charities. 

Yours,  W.  S,  J. 


324:  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

STRUGGLE  FOR  AMERICAN  BISHOPS  CONTINUED  ;  FOREIGN  COR 
RESPONDENCE  ;  BISHOP  LOWTH  AND  HEBREW  GRAMMAR  ;  AS 
SISTANT  MINISTER;  MARRIAGE  OF  GRANDDAUGHTER;  AND 

PROLONGED    ABSENCE    OF   HIS    SON. 

A.  D.  1768-1770. 

THE  opponents  of  the  Church  of  England  in  this 
country  were  restless  under  the  continued  efforts  to 
secure  American  Bishops.  As  often  as  the  clergy  ap 
plied  for  this  boon,  they  repeated  their  representa 
tions  to  the  Government  and  Dissenters  at  home,  that 
it  was  uncalled  for,  and,  if  granted,  would  be  followed 
by  outbursts  of  popular  indignation.  It  has  already 
been  mentioned  that  the  Southern  Provinces  were 
opposed,  or  rather  not  inclined  to  the  scheme,  and 
attempts  were  made  to  bring  them  over  to  its  support. 
Johnson,  writing  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Camm  of  Virginia, 
before  the  death  of  Seeker,  said  :  "  We  have  been 
informed  from  home  that  our  adversaries,  who  seem 
to  have  much  influence  with  the  ministry,  endeavor, 
and  with  too  much  success,  to  make  it  believed,  that 
nineteen  twentieths  of  America  are  utterly  against 
receiving  Bishops,  and  that  sending  them,  though 
only  with  spiritual  powers,  would  cause  more  danger 
ous  disturbances  than  the  Stamp-act  itself;  insomuch 
that  our  most  excellent  Archbishop,  who  has  been 
much  engaged  in  this  great  affair,  and  has  greatly 
condescended  to  exchange  many  letters  with  me  upon 


OF -SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  325 

it  for  several  years,  has  lately  informed  me  that  he 
has  not  been  able  to  gain  the  attention  of  the  min 
istry  to  it ;  though  his  Majesty  is  very  kindly  disposed 
to  favor  and  promote  it.  I  am  therefore  very  appre 
hensive  that  our  solicitations  will  fail  of  gaining  the 
point  unless  we  could  bring  it  to  a  general  cry,  and 
prevail  with  the  Southern  Provinces  to  join  us  in  a 
zealous  application  to  the  Government  at  home  in  the 
same  important  cause." 

The  attacks  upon  Chandler's  "  Appeal  "  led  the  au 
thor  to  prepare  an  elaborate  defense,  and  particularly 
with  a  view  of  replying  to  Dr.  Chauncy,  who  was  his 
most  formidable  antagonist.  The  outlook  for  the 
Church  at  this  time  was  anything  but  encouraging. 
Passion  took  the  place  of  argument,  and  hostile  pens 
ran  beyond  the  limits  of  reason,  so  that  what  Johnson 
wrote  to  his  son  was  true :  "  These  violent  asserters 
of  civil  liberty  for  themselves,  as  violently  plead 
the  cause  of  tyranny  against  ecclesiastical  liberty  to 
others."  The  "  Appeal  Defended  "  was  followed,  at 
a  later  day,  by  another  publication,  entitled  "The 
Appeal  Farther  Defended,"  and  this  was  the  last  of 
the  pamphlets  in  favor  of  the  American  Episcopate, 
though  the  idea  could  not  be  dislodged  from  the 
minds  of  the  true  friends  of  the  Church.  Chandler, 
in  congratulating  his  venerable  adviser  at  Stratford 
on  recovering  from  a  severe  illness,  expressed  the 
hope  that  his  health  might  hold  out,  by  the  blessing 
of  Heaven,  till  he  should  "  have  the  pleasure  of  see 
ing  a  Bishop  in  America." 

The  effect  of  the  controversy  was  not  felt  to  any 
good  purpose  in  England.  Other  things  absorbed  the 
public  attention,  and  the  ministry  was  so  much  en- 


LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

gaged  with  political  measures,  that  no  time  was  taken 
for  deliberate  consultation  upon  the  interests  of  re 
ligion  in  the  Colonial  dependencies.  Johnson,  the 
agent,  wrote  to  his  father  in  midsummer,  1769,  when 
it  was  almost  over :  "  I  cannot  but  say,  I  am  rather 
pleased  that  your  controversy  about  American  Bishops 
seems  to  be  near  its  close,  since  I  am  afraid  it  can 
have  no  very  good  effects  there,  and  it  certainly  pro 
duces  none  at  all  here.  It  is  surprising  how  little  at 
tention  is  paid  to  it."  The  struggles  of  party  were 
violent,  and  the  uneasiness  and  discontents  of  the  peo 
ple  at  home  needed  watching  and  allaying  not  less 
than  the  troubles  and  disquietudes  of  the  Colonies ; 
and  in  this  way  the  great  and  important  design 
of  an  American  Episcopate  was  kept  in  the  distance. 
•'  While  the  state  of  affairs,  both  with  us  and  with 
you,  continues  just  as  it  now  is,  I  am  afraid,"  said  Dr. 
Lowth,  then  Bishop  of  Oxford,  "  we  may  not  expect 
much  to  be  done  in  it."  One  is  reminded  in  this  con 
nection  of  the  sarcastic  observation  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  the  prime  minister,  when  Dean  Berkeley 
solicited  in  Parliament  an  act  in  favor  of  his  scheme 
for  the  Bermuda  College.  He  had  gained  the  good 
will  of  the  King,  and  he  requested  Walpole,  in  pre 
senting  the  measure,  only  to  be  silent ;  he  was  so. 
After  it  was  passed,  a  courtier  remonstrated  with  him 
against  the  proposition  of  the  Crown,  and  he  re 
plied,  "  Who  would  have  thought  anything  for  pro 
moting  religion  or  learning  could  have  passed  a  Brit 
ish  Parliament  ?  " 1 

Dr.  Johnson  did  not  cease,  under  all  the  discour 
agements  of  the  times,  to  cherish  some  good  hopes 

1  MS.  of  Wm.  S.  Johnson,  1767. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  327 

for  the  future.  He  was  now  the  oldest  of  the  clergy 
in  America,  and  felt  at  liberty,  as  he  had  always 
done,  to  write  very  plain  things  to  his  English  corre 
spondents.  He  began,  however,  to  foresee  the  storm 
gathering  in  the  political  horizon.  He  could  not  be 
blind  to  the  determination  of  all  parties  to  give  up 
neither  the  parliamentary  authority  nor  even  the 
right  of  taxation  in  the  Colonies.  "  I  thank  you,"  he 
said  to  his  son  in  the  spring  of  1769,  "  for  sending  the 
Resolves,  etc.  What  dreadful  things  they  are  !  They 
are  like  so  many  thunderbolts  upon  poor  Boston,  and 
it  is  well  if  they  do  not  actually  turn  into  great  guns 
and  bombs  before  they  have  done  ;  for  these  Olive- 
rians  begin  to  think  themselves  Corsicans,  and  I  sus 
pect  will  resist  unto  blood.  But  if  it  should  come  to 
this,  I  doubt  Old  England  and  New  will  fall  together, 
and  both  become  a  prey  to  the  House  of  Bourbon. 
Deus  avertat  omen  /" 

His  foreign  correspondence  grew  more  irksome 
with  the  increase  of  his  infirmities,  and  he  relied 
upon  his  son  to  do  for  him  in  England  what  he  could 
not  so  well  plead  for  by  letter.  Several  of  his  friends 
in  turn  were  pleased  to  communicate  with  him 
through  the  same  medium.  A  domestic  rather  than 
a  literary  or  theological  interest  is  attached  to  the 
following  letters :  — 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  write  these  lines  with  your  good  son 
.sitting  by  me.  He  has  been  so  obliging  as  to  give  me  his 
company  (when  at  this  place  in  last  December)  as  often  as 
lie  could  conveniently.  It  was  matter  of  great  concern  to  me 
that  he  called  on  me  at  Bray  last  summer  during  my  resi 
dence  at  my  other  parish,  twenty-five  miles  distant,  and  my 
mother,  who,  to  her  no  small  joy,  received  him,  totally  forgot 


S28  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

to  ask  his  address ;  so  that  I  had  it  not  in  my  power  to  re 
turn  his  visit. 

I  have,  on  the  strength  of  an  hereditary  friendship,  opened 
my  mind  to  your  worthy  son  on  every  subject  without  re 
serve.  His  Grace  of  Canterbury  receives  him  always  with 
the  regard  due  to  him  on  his  own  account,  and  on  that  of 
his  excellent  father,  to  whom  I  beg  leave  to  return  my  best 
thanks  for  a  valuable  token  of  regard  which  had  not  thus 
long  escaped  my  notice. 

I  have  the  happiness  of  telling  you  that  my  good  mother 
(who  remembers  you  with  the  truest  respect)  is  very  well, 
and  likely  to  bless  her  family  for  many  years.  I  am  also,  I 
thank  God,  very  happy  in  my  wife  and  two  sons.  My  choice 
in  matrimony  gave  the  highest  satisfaction  to  my  mother, 
and  therefore  you  will  believe  that  it  was  not  an  unwise  one. 

I  earnestly  pray  for  the  continuance  of  your  valuable  life, 
and  that  a  long  stay  on  earth  may  lead  you  to  a  longer  hap 
piness.  These  lines  are  written,  as  you  perceive,  in  a  hurry, 
as  Dr.  Johnson  must  carry  them  away  with  him. 

I  remain,  my  dear  Sir, 

Your  most  faithful  and  affectionate  friend  and  servant, 

GEORGE  BERKELEY. 

I, AM  HI. TI i  PALACE,  Thursday,  March  10,  1768. 

Answer :  — 

June  10,  1768. 

MY  VERY  DEAR  AND  WORTHY  SrR, — It  gave  me  the* 
greatest  satisfaction  to  receive  your  affectionate  letter,  and  to 
be  informed  of  your  welfare,  and  of  the  health  of  that  most 
excellent  lady,  your  mother  ;  and  moreover  of  your  great 
happiness  in  so  excellent  a  consort  as  she  must  undoubtedly 
be  to  have  the  approbation  and  esteem  of  so  good  a  judge.  I 
also  rejoice  with  you  in  your  two  sons,  and  am  glad  that  the 
great  and  good  Bishop  whom  I  am  proud  to  call  my  friend  is 
like  to  live  in  so  hopeful  a  posterity,  and  I  heartily  pray  God 
that  all  those  joys  and  many  more  may  long,  very  long  be 
continued  to  you.  I  beg  you  will  make  my  most  affectionate 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  329 

compliments  acceptable  to  your  honored  mother  (and  your 
lady,  though  unknown),  together  with  my  hearty  thanks  for 
the  very  kind  manner  in  which  she  received  and  treated  my 
dear  and  only  son,  who  has  the  highest  sense  of  her  amiable- 
ness  and  benevolence.  I  bless  God  that  the  friendship  I  had 
the  honor  of  with  your  renowned  father  still  subsists  between 
our  children,  and  am  very  glad  that  on  the  score  of  it  you 
have  so  particularly  opened  your  mind  to  my  son  on  the  most 
important  subjects. 

I  am  greatly  grieved  at  the  dark  account  he  gives  me  from 
you  of  the  ill-health  of  the  most  worthy  and  excellent  Mr. 
Jones,  and  let  him  know,  with  my  compliments  when  you 
have  opportunity,  how  great  satisfaction  I  have  in  his  excel 
lent  performance  in  Philosophy  as  well  as  the  Trinity,  and 
how  earnestly  I  pray  for  his  life  and  health,  that  he  may 
bless  the  world  with  other  labors  ! 1  I  bless  God  that  such 
excellent  men  as  Drs.  Horne  and  Wetherell  are  preferred  to 
be  heads  of  those  important  houses  in  the  University,  and 
when  you  have  opportunity  give  them  my  compliments  and 

i°y- 

I  am  inexpressibly  obliged  to  his  Grace  of  Canterbury  for 
the  great  honor  he  does  my  son,  and  thank  you  for  the  can 
dor  with  which  you  accept  such  a  trifle  as  my  little  Grammar, 
in  which  I  had  no  other  view  than  to  be  useful  to  young  lads 
in  America,  where  I  am  extremely  desirous,  if  possible,  to 
promote  the  study  of  Hebrew,  as  it  is  very  little  known  here. 
I  thank  you,  my  dear  Sir,  for  your  affectionate  prayers  in  my 
behalf,  and  remain  with  great  esteem  and  regard, 

Your  most  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

S.  J. 

1  Wm.  Samuel  Johnson,  writing  to  his  father  May  14,  1768,  and  speaking  of  Arch 
bishop  Seeker,  said :  — 

u  I  dined  with  him  about  ten  days  ago,  when  he  was  able  to  sit  at  table,  but  had 
no  use  of  his  left  hand  and  arm.  I  had  the  pleasure  to  meet  there  Dr.  Berkeley,  and 
the  very  worthy  and  learned  Mr.  Jones,  who  is  much  better  in  health  than  he  used 
to  be,  and  told  me  he  was  still  pursuing  his  Principles  of  Natural  Philosophy,  and 
hoped  he  should  ere  long  be  able  to  publish  something  upon  that  subject.  He  re 
membered  my  brother  with  much  affection,  and  desired  his  compliments  to  you,  as 
did  Dr.  Berkeley.  His  account  of  the  state  of  Hutchinsonianism  is  much  the  same 
with  what  I  have  before  mentioned  to  you." 


330  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

It  alleviated  the  grief  of  his  son's  long  absence  that 
he  received  from  him  frequent  and  agreeable  accounts 
of  interviews  with  his  old  correspondents  and  with 
men  of  distinction  in  literature  as  well  as  in  the  affairs 
of  the  government.  "  For  the  sake  of  the  name,"  he 
wrote  in  November  1769,  "  and  because  I  think  him 
one  of  the  best  of  the  modern  writers,  I  made  an  ac 
quaintance,  some  time  ago,  with  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson, 
author  of  the  '  Dictionary,'  etc.  He  was  very  well 
pleased  with  the  attention  I  paid  him ;  had  heard  of 
you,  and  presents  his  compliments.  He  has  shining 
abilities,  great  erudition,  and  extensive  knowledge ;  is 
ranked  in  the  first  class  of  the  literati,  and  highly 
esteemed  for  his  strong  sense  and  virtue  ;  but  is  as 
odd  a  mortal  as  you  ever  saw.  You  would  not,  at 
first  sight,  suspect  he  had  ever  read,  or  thought  in  his 
life,  or  was  much  above  the  degree  of  an  idiot.  But 
nuUafronti  fides,  when  he  opens  himself,  after  a  little 
acquaintance,  you  are  abundantly  repaid  for  these 
first  unfavorable  appearances."  l 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Johnson  had  intimated  to  his  son  that 
seeing  so  much  grandeur,  and  being  conversant  with 
the  luxuries  and  refinement  of  the  Old  World,  he 
might  be  tempted  to  look  down  upon  America,  or  that 
his  home,  when  he  returned  to  it,  would  appear  mean 
and  despicable.  But  great  minds  are  never  thus  af 
fected.  "  I  will  not  have  the  vanity,"  he  replied,  "  to 
impute  it  to  my  philosophy ;  but  it  is  my  good  fortune, 

1  It  has  been  told  that  when  he  introduced  himself  as  an  American,  the  great  sage 
and  moralist  treated  him,  at  first,  somewhat  rudely,  and  spoke  harshly  of  his  coun 
trymen,  saying,  among  other  things:  "The  Americans!  what  do  they  know  and  what 
do  they  read?  "  "  They  read,  Sir,  the  Rambler,"  was  the  quick  and  polite  reply; 
which  so  pleased  him  that  he  took  the  statesman  into  his  confidence,  paid  him  many 
civilities  in  London,  and,  after  his  return  to  this  country  honored  him  with  kind 
and  courteous  letters.  See  Appendix  A. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  331 

that  though  I  am  pleased  enough  with  seeing  these 
things,  yet  they  take  little  hold  of  my  affections.  I 
like  to  look  behind  the  gay  curtain,  but  when  I  do,  I 
find  little  to  admire  and  less  to  be  attached  to."  And 
he  added  still  more  :  "  My  wishes,  were  they  indulged 
me  to  the  utmost,  would  be  very  limited,  and  all  cen 
tre  in  a  little  ease  and  independence  in  the  tranquil 
vales  of  America.  The  worst  of  it  is,  that  I  am  not 
likely  to  be  very  soon  gratified  even  in  such  humble 
hopes,  and  the  best  way  (to  which  I  hope  to  bring 
myself  by  and  by)  is  to  have  no  wishes  for  anything 
in  this  world  but  what  we  actually  possess,  or  have 
certainly  within  our  reach.  This  however  cannot  be 
till  I  return  to  Stratford." 

Ever  since  the  publication  of  his  "  Hebrew  Gram 
mar,"  he  had  been  desirous  of  issuing  a  second  edition 
corrected  and  improved.  It  was  his  last  contribution 
to  Christian  education  in  America,  and  he  would  leave 
it,  as  far  as  he  had  the  means  of  making  it  so,  in  a 
perfect  state.  For  this  purpose  he  consulted  several 
Hebrew  scholars  and  solicited  their  opinion  of  the 
merit  of  his  performance.  To  Bishop  Lowth  he  sug 
gested  the  idea  of  laying  a  broad  foundation  for  the 
study  of  the  language  in  this  country,  and  giving  to 
it  a  prominent  place  in  collegiate  instruction.  "  I 
wish,"  said  the  Bishop,  "  it  were  as  much  in  my 
power,  as  were  there  an  opportunity  it  would  cer 
tainly  be  in  my  inclination,  to  promote  your  useful 
proposal  of  establishing  a  Hebrew  Professorship  in 
North  America.  We  must  leave  to  God's  good  provi 
dence  this  and  many  other  improvements  in  that, 
country,  and  I  doubt  not  of  their  being  in  due  time 
accomplished."  The  Bishop  had  given  him  to  under- 


332  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

stand  that  the  learned  were  beginning  to  think  in 
earnest  of  a  new  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  "  as  a 
thing  not  a  great  way  off ;  "  and  writing  November  1, 
1771,  to  Mr.  Parkhurst,  the  scholar  who  carried  his 
"  Hebrew  Grammar  "  through  the  press  in  London, 
Johnson  expressed  the  wish  that  all  helps  might  be 
made  available  in  such  a  work,  even  the  discoveries 
of  Hutchinson,  for  whose  learning,  with  some  excep 
tions,  he  still  retained  a  high  respect. 

Among  others  whom  he  consulted  was  Mr.  Sewall, 
Professor  of  Oriental  Literature  in  Harvard  Univer 
sity  ;  and  through  him  he  desired  the  opinion  of  a 
colleague,  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  about  Hutchinson's 
"  Scripture  Philosophy."  The  answer  returned  is  too 
good  to  be  excluded  from  these  pages  :  — 

CAMBRIDGE,  24$  July,  1769. 

REV.  SIR,  —  An  answer  to  your  obliging  favor  of  March 
1,  1768,  I  acknowledge  hath  been  long  due.  The  only  reason 
of  delay  was  the  want  of  a  private  conveyance.  For  I  could 
not  persuade  myself  an  epistle  of  this  nature  was  worth  the 
postage  for  such  a  length  of  way. 

My  thanks  are  due,  Sir,  for  those  favorable  sentiments  you 
are  pleased  to  express  of  the  Oriental  Professor  at  Cam 
bridge.  He  wishes  his  poor,  but  honest  endeavors  may  be 
followed  with  those  happy  consequences  you  mention. 

The  union  of  the  whole  Christian  Church,  in  the  bonds 
of  peace  and  love,  is  an  object  much  to  be  desired.  In  the 
mean  time,  however  we  may  differ  in  certain  external  modes 
and  forms,  I  trust  we  shall  each  bear  an  undissembled  affec 
tion  to  all,  of  whatever  denomination,  who  love  our  common 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity. 

Mr.  Professor  Winthrop,  Sir,  is  a  firm  believer  in  the 
Newtonian  system.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  supposed  he 
should  entertain  a  very  high  opinion  of  a  scheme  so  opposite 
to  that  as  the  Hutchinsonian  is. 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  333 

The  Hebrew  language  is  certainly  the  most  simple  of 
any  ;  and  the  grammars  of  it  (setting  aside  the  incumbrance 
of  points),  may  be  reduced  to  a  smaller  compass  than  that 
of  any  other  language  upon  earth  :  it  may,  consequently,  be 
learned  with  greater  facility  and  expedition.  Upon  these  ac 
counts,  and  others  that  possibly  might  be  added,  I  cannot 
but  think  it  claims  priority  in  a  learned  education.  The  pro 
gression  ought  always  to  be  from  the  easier  to  the  more  dif 
ficult. 

Your  Grammar,  Sir,  in  my  humble  opinion,  is  upon  a 
very  good  plan,  and  may  answer  very  valuable  purposes. 
You  are  the  best  judge  whether  it  may  be  improved.  It 
hardly  becomes  the  modesty  of  one  who  is  comparatively 
but  a  youth  to  point  out  to  a  gentleman  of  Dr.  Johnson's 
learning  and  experience  what  improvement,  if  any,  may  be 
made  in  his  own  composition. 

I  am,  Rev.  Sir,  with  great  respect, 

Your  very  humble  servant, 

STEPHEN  SEW  ALL. 

Something  more  than  a  lay-reader  was  now  needed 
to  aid  Dr.  Johnson  in  his  parochial  duties.  Mr.  Ty 
ler,  who  had  been  with  him  above  a  year,  pursuing 
the  study  of  Hebrew  and  Divinity,  was  desirous  of 
proceeding  to  England  for  ordination,  and  of  being  ap 
pointed  to  a  mission  within  the  colony.  Guilford  and 
Norwich  were  both  vacant,  and  as  the  former  was  the 
birthplace  of  Johnson,  he  procured  him  an  invitation 
to  read  there  for  several  months  before  embarking, 
and  then  gave  him  commendatory  letters  to  the  Arch 
bishop  and  the  Society. 

The  Rev.  Ebenezer  Kneeland,  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College  in  1761,  three  years  in  holy  orders,  and  a 
chaplain  in  the  British  army,  appeared  in  Stratford 
and  rendered  acceptable  service  to  the  parish. 

He   wrote   to   his  son,  January  15,  1768 :     "  My 


334  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

health,  D.  G.,  is  perfectly  good,  but  my  legs  much  as 
they  were.  Mr.  Kneeland,  whom  I  much  like,  is  here 
till  March,  and  nearly  adored :  the  people  have  sub 
scribed  c£30  per  annum,  and  he  has  agreed  to  quit 
his  regiment  and  come  next  summer.  Mr.  Tyler  is 
invited  and  gone  to  Guilford,  and  the  Church  is  very 
happy  and  increasing."  He  described  Mr.  Kneeland 
at  the  same  time  as  a  good  scholar  and  an  excellent 
speaker  ;  but  letters  and  other  memorials  will  hardly 
sustain  the  description.  They  indicate  neither  depth 
of  learning  nor  polished  culture,  and  subsequent  and 
more  intimate  relations  must  have  led  him  to  qualify 
his  opinion.  He  was  chosen  associate  minister,  how 
ever,  and  took  the  more  laborious  duties  which  had 
become  so  burdensome  to  the  aged  Rector.  It  was 
a  welcome  and  timely  relief,  and  the  people  were 
glad  to  provide  it. 

Eighteen  months  elapsed,  and  his  son  in  England 
was  surprised  to  learn  that  Mr.  Kneeland  had  formed 
an  acquaintance  with  his  eldest  daughter  (Charity), 
and  desired  to  be  united  to  her  in  marriage.  The 
approbation  of  her  mother  and  grandfather  was  ob 
tained  before  his  consent  was  asked,  which  appears  to 
have  been  reluctantly  given,  with  some  good  advice 
about  the  happiness  and  responsibility  of  the  married 
state.  This  connection  brought  the  assistant  minis 
ter  and  his  superior  more  closely  together,  and  made 
their  interests  in  working  the  parish  one.  It  left 
no  room  for  jealousies,  and  Dr.  Johnson  was  now  grat 
ified  with  the  prospect  of  being  succeeded  by  one  of 
his  own  affinity  in  a  charge  especially  dear  to  him. 
and  which  he  had  held  for  nearly  forty  years. 

What  gave  him  the  greatest  anxiety  at  this  period 


OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  335 

was  the  prolonged  absence  of  his  son  in  England. 
From  year  to  year  he  had  looked  for  his  return,  and  , 
lived  upon  the  hope  of  seeing  him  again  restored  to 
his  family,  but  his  expectations  were  continually  dis 
appointed.  He  often  begged  him,  for  the  sake  of  his 
domestic  affairs,  to  relinquish  his  agency,  if  the  busi 
ness  intrusted  to  him  could  not  be  speedily  accom 
plished  ;  and  in  December,  1769,  he  wrote  to  Gov 
ernor  Trumbull  of  Connecticut,  congratulating  him  on 
his  advancement  to  the  head  of  the  government ;  and 
at  the  same  time  expostulating  with  him  on  the  sub 
ject  of  his  son's  being  so  long  detained  in  England. 
"  I  am  told,"  said  he,  "  the  Lower  House  voted  to 
direct  him  to  come  home  in  the  spring  at  all  events  ; 
but  that  the  Upper  House,  led  by,  I  know  not  what 
expressions  in  his  letters,  prevailed  on  the  Assembly  to 
conclude  to  instruct  him  by  all  means  to  continue 
longer,  leaving,  however,  a  discretionary  power  with 
your  Honor  to  direct  otherwise,  if  you  should  see 
reason  for  it,  or  something  to  this  effect." 

The  Governor,  in  acknowledging  his  "  pathetic  ex 
postulation,"  did  not  admit  that  any  such  discretion 
ary  power  was  lodged  with  him,  but  rather  that  the 
General  Assembly  fully  relied  on  the  purity  of  the 
agent's  intentions  to  serve  the  interests  of  the  colony, 
and  to  return  whenever  it  should  be  consistent  with 
his  sense  of  duty.  He  lamented  the  public  confu 
sions,  and  the  "  paltry  injurious  Indian  cause,"  which 
had  led  to  the  long  separation  from  his  "  dearest  and 
tenderest  connections;"  and  then  added,  what  was 
quite  true,  "  his  observations  and  intelligence  will  be 
of  lasting  advantage  to  the  colony,  and  his  services 
there  at  this  critical  juncture  peculiarly  great." 


336  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

The  agent,  writing  to  his  wife  on  New  Year's  Day, 
1770,  said  :  — 

The  present  situation  of  our  affairs  is  this.  On  the  22d 
uit.  the  Lords  of  the  Council  were  moved  to  assign  a  day  for 
hearing  a  motion  we  intend  to  make  for  dismission  of  the 
Mohegan  cause,  when  their  Lordships  were  pleased  to  appoint 
the  first  day  of  their  next  sittings  for  that  purpose,  and  to 
assure  us  it  should  be  before  the  expiration  of  this  month. 
Should  this  motion  on  our  part  succeed,  the  cause  is  at  an  end. 
I  shall  then  be  disengaged  from  this  tedious  affair,  and  shall 
have  only  to  see  what  Parliament  will  do  with  the  colonies 
in  the  course  of  this  session,  and  may  certainly  leave  Eng 
land  as  soon  as  it  is  over,  which  will  probably  be  sometime 
iu  May.  Should  we  fail  in  this  motion,  we  shall  then  indeed 
have  to  try  the  merits  of  the  cause  at  large,  but  still  have 
good  reason  to  expect  that  it  may  be  got  through  with  in  the 
course  of  the  winter  or  spring  ;  so  that  either  way  I  have  the 
strongest  hopes  of  seeing  you  some  time  next  summer,  at 
farthest,  and  you  may  rely  upon  it,  it  shall  be  as  soon  as 
possible. 

His  strong  hopes  were  not  realized,  and  a  vexatious 
delay  again  filled  his  friends  with  disappointment. 
He  wrote  his  father  late  in  the  summer  of  this  year 
that  he  had  not  only  been  unable  to  get  his  business 
dispatched,  but  had  for  a  month  past  been  extremely 
ill  with  a  serious  fit  of  the  gout  in  both  his  feet ; 
and  he  intimated  that  if  no  probability  existed  of 
the  Mohegan  cause  being  tried  in  five  or  six  months, 
he  should  not  hesitate  to  come  away  as  soon  as  his 
health  would  permit,  though  to  return  again,  should 
it  be  thought  necessary,  to  attend  the  trial.  Once 
the  case  was  nearly  finished,  June,  1770,  when  the 
sickness  of  the  attorney  general  intervened  and  led 
to  a  postponement.  Every  way  this  was  a  sad  mis- 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  337 

fortune  to  him,  and  speaking  of  his  detention  on 
this  account  in  the  same  letter,  he  said ;  "  One  miti 
gating  circumstance,  however,  attends  it ;  that  one 
can  bear  with  more  patience  those  ills  which  are  the 
immediate  inflictions  of  Providence  than  those  which 
are  occasioned  by  the  faults  of  men.  Had  this  de 
lay  been  occasioned  by  anything  less  than  sickness  or 
unavoidable  necessity  I  should  have  had  no  patience 
left.  But  nobody  is  to  blame ;  it  was  the  act  of  Prov 
idence." 

It  has  already  been  mentioned,  as  some  compensa 
tion  for  this  protracted  absence,  that  the  father  was 
favored  with  such  graphic  and  admirable  letters  from 
his  son.  Nothing  but  talking  over  experiences  at  the 
fireside  in  Stratford  could  exceed  the  interest  with 
which  he  read  the  descriptions  of  what  he  saw  and 
heard  in  England,  and  his  brief  account  of  inter 
views  with  men  high  in  Church  and  State.  The  son 
was  present  at  some  of  the  most  important  and  excit 
ing  debates  in  Parliament,,  and  at  a  period  too  when 
great  minds  were  occupied  with  great  national  sub 
jects.  He  listened  to  the  most  eloquent  defenders  of 
the  British  Constitution,  and  gathered  up  every  word 
that  was  spoken  in  vindication  of  measures  which 
bore  upon  the  welfare  of  America.  The  caution  with 
which  he  communicated  his  observations  to  his  father 
showed  how  critical  the  times  were,  and  how  solici 
tous  he  was  that  his  countrymen  should  not  be  un 
prepared  for  the  perils  and  hardships  that  lay  in  their 
path. 

In  a  letter  to  him  on  the  4th  of  .January,  1769, 
he  spoke  of  what  seemed  to  be  the  fixed  resolution 
of  the  Administration  not  to  repeal  immediatelv  those 

22 


338  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

acts  which  the  Colonies  complained  of,  but  to  main 
tain  the  right  of  Parliament  to  impose  duties  and 
taxes  in  America,  and  to  enforce  obedience  to  its  laws 
in  the  most  effectual  manner.  "  The  tide,  in  fact,  at 
present,"  he  added,  "  sets  strongly  enough  against  us, 
and  I  fancy  will  continue  to  do  so  while  Lord  Hills- 
borough  administers  our  affairs,  who  is  extremely  in 
flexible."  Four  months  later  he  wrote  again  to  his 
father  with  scarcely  happier  forebodings  :  — 

•  < 

I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  that  you  accept  so  well  my 
apology  for  this  long,  tedious  absence,  which,  as  I  have  said, 
I  greatly  hope  will  not  be  prolonged  through  another  winter, 
though  I  cannot  determine  its  period.  Your  obliging  com 
pliment  upon  my  defense  of  the  charter  against  Lord  Hills- 
borough's  objections  is  very  flattering.  I  am  sensible  of  the 
danger  we  are  in  with  respect  to  all  our  rights,  and  particu 
larly  the  evil  eye  they  have  upon  this  charter  especially ; 
yet  I  should  be  particularly  sorry  to  have  that  event  take 
place  while  I  am  here,  and  shall  therefore,  as  it  is  my  duty, 
continue  to  defend  both  that  and  all  our  other  just  rights,  in 
the  best  manner  I  can  while  I  'continue  in  the  service  of  the 
colony.  It  is  extremely  unhappy  that  we  cannot  on  both 
sides  come  to  a  better  temper  in  the  unfortunate  dispute  now 
subsisting  between  this  country  and  that.  If  we  once  get 
into  blood,  your  conjecture  will  undoubtedly  be  but  too  soon 
fatally  verified  :  we  shall  destroy  each  other,  and  become  an 
easy  prey  to  our  enemies.  Prudent  men,  on  both  sides,  are 
aware  of  this  danger,  and  will,  I  hope,  by  degrees  gain  so 
much  influence  as  to  prevent  it.  Administration  have,  since 
the  rising  of  Parliament,  given  out  that  the  duty-act  shall 
be  repealed  next  year,  if  the  Colonies  remain  quiet,  but  one 
can  hardly  depend  much  upon  the  declarations  of  minis 
ters. 

When  the  year  came  round  and  the  address  from 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  339 

the  Throne  had  been  issued,  he  inclosed  a  copy  to  his 
father,  and  wrote,  among  other  things  :  — 

Lord  Chatham  appeared  again  (after  three  years'  ab 
sence)  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  declared  himself  the 
friend  of  America.  He  said  he  had  not  altered  his  ideas  of 
the  proper  mode  of  governing  the  Colonies,  wished  for  mod 
eration  and  lenity,  but  would  not  go  fully  into  the  subject. 
"  I  have,''  says  he,  "  a  strong  propensity  towards  that  coun 
try,  and  love  liberty  wherever  it  appears.  That  country 
was  settled  upon  ideas  of  liberty.  It  is  a  vine,  to  use  the 
allusion  of  Scripture,  which  has  taken  deep  root  and  filled 
the  land.  May  it  long  flourish  !  But  I  am  the  friend  not 
the  flatterer  of  America  ;  they  have  done  wrong  in  some 
things,  but  let  us  inquire  coolly  and  candidly  before  we  cen 
sure  as  the  address  does." 

On  the  7th  of  February,  1770,  he  wrote  him  a 
long  letter,  reciting,  his  hindrances,  and  gravely  re 
pelling  an  insinuation  which  seems  to  have  been  mis 
chievously  made,  that  he  was  becoming  alienated 
from  his  family  ;  and  then  he  proceeded  to  things  less 
personal,  and  described  a  debate  in  Parliament,  the 
memory  of  which  must  have  lingered  with  him  to 
the  end  of  his  days. 

I  hardly  know  how  to  write  upon  any  other  subject,  but  I 
must  just  tell  you  that  we  have  had  many  changes  of  men, 
both  by  deaths  and  dismissions  (which  the  papers,  I  presume, 
will  have  acquainted  you  with),  without  any  changes  of 
measures.  Lord  North,  for  the  present,  succeeds  the  Duke 
of  Graf  ton  as  prime  minister,  and  seems  to  intend  to  pursue 
the  same  system  of  politics.  Parliament  have  been  much 
retarded  in  their  proceedings  by  these  changes,  and  the  rest 
of  their  time  has  been  taken  up  with  the  Middlesex  election, 
which  has  been  repeatedly  debated  with  great  vehemence 


340  LIFE    AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

and  acrimony,  both  by  the  Lords  and  Commons  ;  but  the 
ministry  have  still  carried  their  point  in  favor  of  the  decision 
of  last  year,  on  several  divisions,  by  a  majority  of  about  forty 
in  the  Commons,  and  in  the  Lords  of  about  fifty.  The  Lords 
in  the  minority  have  signed  the  most  spirited  protest  that  is 
perhaps  of  record.  The  opposition  intend  still  to  pursue  the 
point  in  every  shape  they  can  devise. 

Lord  Chatham itold  the  Lords  that  while  he  lived  it  should 
never  rest,  nor  would  they  cease  to  bring  it  before  Parlia 
ment  in  every  possible  method,  till  the  wound  in  the  Consti 
tution  was  healed.  His  last  speech  upon  this  occasion  (about 
two  o'clock  last  Saturday  morning)  was  amazingly  fine. 
Neither  Greece  nor  Rome,  I  believe  I  may  venture  to  say, 
ever  heard  anything  superior  to  it.  Roused  with  indigna 
tion  at  some  unfair  proceedings  of  the  ministry,  as  well  as 
warmed  by  the  universal  ardor  of  the  debate,  he  displayed 
his  utmost  powers  of  eloquence,  and  with  astonishing  abil 
ity  and  energy  even  vanquished  Lord  Mansfield,  who  is  cer 
tainly  one  of  the  first  of  mankind,  and  worthy  of  such  an 
antagonist.  He  obliged  him  to  change  his  ground  even  in 
a  point  within  his  own  profession,  —  the  law.  The  conflicts 
of  these  two  great  men  are  such  as  would  have  been  seen 
between  Demosthenes  and  Cicero,  had  they  been  opposed 
to  each  other,  warmed  by  emulation  and  heated  by  oppo 
sition.  They  excel  each  other  in  different  manners  of  elo 
quence,  but  are  equally  superior  to  all  others.  This  dispute 
so  engrosses  the  attention  of  all  the  politicians  that  they 
can  hardly  think  of  anything  else.  Hence  it  is  that  Amer 
ican  affairs  have  not  yet  been  taken  up,  though  we  expect 
they  will  be  soon  entered  upon.  There  seems  to  be  but  little 
hope,  at  present,  that  we  shall  obtain  more  than  the  repeal 
of  the  duties  upon  glass,  paper,  and  painters'  colors,  which 
will  answer  no  purpose  to  America.  On  the  contrary,  they 
threaten  us  with  some  severe  resolutions,  or  perhaps  a  penal 
act,  against  agreements  not  to  import  goods.  Lord  Chatham, 
we  are  told,  wishes  the  repeal  of  the  whole  of  this  Revenue 
act,  but  I  fear  he  will  not  have  influence  enough  to  effect  it. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  341 


CHAPTER  XV.    V  o,  (,mf(if,,! 


DESIRE  FOR  AMERICAN  BISHOPS  UNQUENCHED  ;  LETTERS  FROM 
DR.  BERKELEY  AND  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON  ;  JOY  AT  THE 
RETURN  OF  HIS  SON  ;  WISH  FOR  A  PEACEFUL  EXIT  ;  DEATH 

AND  BURIAL  ;    CONCLUSION. 

A.  D.  1770-1772. 

THOUGH  the  war  of  pamphlets  was  about  over,  and 
formal  appeals  from  the  clergy  in  this  country  were 
ended,  yet  Dr.  Johnson  could  not  cease  to  be  inter 
ested  in  the  effort  to  obtain  American  Bishops.  He 
still  felt  that  it  was  a  want  which  must  be  supplied, 
and  whenever  he  wrote  to  his  English  correspondents, 
which  was  not  often  now,  he  pressed  it  upon  their  at 
tention.  The  Bishop  of  London,  Dr.  Terrick,  appre 
ciated  his  feelings,  and  expressed  a  willingness  to 
favor  the  design  on  first  coming  to  his  London  see. 
But  objections  were  raised  which  he  was  not  able  to 
remove.  They  were  the  same  which  had  hindered 
the  attempts  of  his  immediate  predecessor,  Bishop 
Sherlock,  and  deterred  him  from  repeating  his  memo 
rials  to  the  throne  upon  the  subject.  They  centered 
in  the  policy  of  statesmen,  and  gathered  strength 
from  the  uneasiness  and  remonstrance  of  the  Dissen 
ters. 

Dr.  Berkeley,  not  always  perhaps  with  the  best 
discretion,  was  a  strong  advocate  of  the  scheme  so 
persistently  opposed.  At  one  time  he  seriously 
meditated  a  visit  to  America  with  his  wife,  and  went 


342  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

so  far  as  to  take  steps  towards  purchasing  a  farm  in 
the  colony  of  Connecticut.  "  I  should  much  like/' 
he  wrote  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Johnson,  from  Cookham 
near  Maidenhead,  April  21,  1770,  "  to  pass  one  year 
in  a  country  for  which  I  have  inherited  no  slight  af 
fection  from  both  my  parents/'  In  the  same  letter 
he  mentioned  :  "  Mr.  Dalton  is  settled  on  a  little  farm 
near  me,  and  enjoys  very  good  health ;  he  often  talks 
of  America  with  great  regard."  And  then  he  added, 
with  a  mixture  of  playfulness  and  seriousness  :  — 

If  you  Americans  are  not  betrayed  by  your  wives  and 
daughters,  you  may  transmit  the  invaluable  blessing  of  lib 
erty  to  your  posterity  ;  but  if  your  females  conspire  with 
short-sighted  merchants  (who  are  too  lazy  to  become  farm 
ers),  you  may  in  half  a  century  be  enslaved  as  the  Irish  are 
at  this  day,  where  the  list  of  court-pensioners  (mostly  Eng 
lish)  consumes  more  than  ninety  thousand  pounds  sterling 
annually  ;  all  of  which  money  is  granted  without  Parlia 
ment,  by  virtue  of  the  Privy  Seal.  And  after  it  has  been  so 
granted,  Parliament  is  applied  to  for  ways  and  means,  which 
if  the  Irish  Parliament  should  refuse  to  afford,  the  English 
Parliament  would  claim  a  privilege  once  surreptitiously  ob 
tained,  and  raise  a  revenue  by.  taxation  without  representa 
tion. 

The  design  of  visiting  America  was  relinquished, 
partly  owing  to  a  preferment  which  kept  him  at 
home,  but  l^is  interest  in  the  country  continued.  He 
was  a  warm  friend  of  the  American  Church,  and  ap 
pears  to  have  anticipated  for  it  a  great  future.  His 
intimacy  with  Dr.  Johnson,  the  Colonial  agent,  in 
creased  with  every  year  of  his  stay  in  England,  and 
his  regret  at  parting  with  him  was  deeper  than 
words  could  exrjress.  That  gentleman  under  date  of 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  343 

Tuesday.  June  llth,  1771,  entered  in  his  private 
journal :  "  Attended  at  the  Cock-pit  the  final  hearing 
of  the  Mohegan  cause;"  and  having  disposed  of 
other  trusts  and  business  committed  to  him,  and  taken 
leave  of  his  many  friends,  he  bade  adieu  to  London, 
and  sailed  from  GravQsend  for  New  York  on  Saturday, 
the  3d  of  August.  Among  the  letters  which  he 
brought  with  him  addressed  to  his  father,  was  the  fol 
lowing  :  — 

CANTERBURY,  Monday,  July  29,  1771. 

REVEREND  AND  DEAR  SIR,  —  God  grant  that  you  may 
speedily  receive  these  lines  from  the  hands  of  your  excellent 
and  very  amiable  son.  His  deep  distress  at  being  thus  long 
unavoidably  detained  from  his  worthy  lady,  yourself,  and  his 
beloved  olive-branches,  has  sensibly  impaired  his  health. 
We,  who  love  and  regret  him,  as  he  deserves,  hope  that  the 
effect  will  cease  with  the  cause. 

I  wrote  to  you  a  long  letter  immediately  on  the  receipt  of 
your  last  favor.  In  that  letter  I  opened  my  mind  to  you 
with  great  freedom  on  some  important  subjects,  and  I  have 
now  reason  to  suspect  that  (by  the  carelessness  of  a  servant) 
those  breathings  of  iny  soul  have  miscarried.  This  accident 
would  have  been  much  more  grievous  to  us  if  Dr.  Johnson's 
return  did  not  now  anticipate  my  reflections  on  the  state  of 
learning,  church  discipline,  and  religion  in  America.  Mr. 
Temple  of  Boston  visited  me  here  a  few  days  ago  ;  he  styled 
his  friend,  Dr.  Johnson,  the  flower  of  America. 

My  expectations  of  receiving  one  more  visit  from  the  be 
loved  bearer  of  these  lines  are,  alas !  now  tq  be  given  up. 
This  morning,  a  person  just  arrived  from  London,  has 
brought  me  a  most  unwelcome  message  from  him,  and  my 
letter  will  be  but  barely  in  time. 

It  happens,  by  what  we  mortals  call  chance,  that  the  Dean 
of  this  church  is  an  amiable  and  religious  man  ;  he  is  to  be 
elected  Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Coventry  as  soon  as  he  shall 


344  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

have  completed  his  thirtieth  year,  i.  e.,  before  the  end  of  next 
week.  Dr.  North  is  much  fitter  for  the  office  of  a  Bishop 
than  any  old  man  (without  exception)  that  I  remember  to 
have  seen  appointed  to  that  office.  Your  good  son  knows  as 
much  of  the  real  political  and  ecclesiastical  state  of  England 
as  any  man  in  it ;  I  need  not  add,  more  than  all  the  Ameri 
cans  I  ever  knew  put  together. 

Mrs.  Berkeley,  your  old  acquaintance,  and  Mrs.  George 
Berkeley,  who  would  be  very  glad  to  become  your  acquaint 
ance,  join  in  every  possible  kind  wish  for  you.  May  a  long 
and  happy  life  lead  you,  through  Redeeming  mercy,  to  a 
longer  happiness ! 

My  time  is  short,  and  my  spirits  are  depressed  by  the  con 
sideration  of  the  loss  I  am  to  sustain.  Dr.  Johnson  indeed 
was  so  good  as  to  come  on  purpose  to  Canterbury  to  take 
leave  of  us,  but  unfortunately  I  was  then  on  a  visit  to  my 
parishioners. 

I  am,  with  the  truest  respect,  dear  Doctor, 

Your  faithful  and  affectionate  brother, 

G.  BERKELEY. 

P.  S.  I  have  the  comfort  of  being  able  to  say  that  Dr. 
North  is  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  his  ser 
mons  ;  if  there  was  a  vacancy,  I  should  be  happy  to  see  him 
our  Metropolitan  to-morrow. 

Dr.  Johnson  reached  his  family  in  Stratford  on  the 
1st  of  October,  having  been  absent  from  the  country 
for  nearly  five  years.  He  found  his  aged  father  full 
of  infirmities  and  bending  to  the  grave,  but  ready  to 
welcome  him  with  a  warm  heart  and  a  clear  intellect. 
He  had  begun  to  feel  that  he  might  not  live  till  his 
return,  and  therefore  his  joy  was  all  the  greater  when 
he  came  and  renewed  with  him  the  scenes  through 
which  he  had  passed,  and  the  personal  interviews 
with  distinguished  men,  known  to  him  hitherto  only 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  345 

through  the  medium  of  their  correspondence,  their 
works,  or  their  statesmanship. 

His  measure  of  earthly  happiness  was  now  full,  and 
he  had  no  more  for  which  to  look  forward  in  this 
life.  He  continued  a  little  longer  to  use  his  pen,  and 
write  to  his  friends ;  but  his  letters  were  those  of  one 
who  seemed  to  be  conscious  that  he  was  closing  up 
his  stewardship.  The  Bishop  of  London  had  sent 
him  a  brief  communication  by  his  son,  which,  though 
not  inspiring  him  with  any  new  hopes,  was  grate 
fully  received  and  resolutely  answered.  Its  bur 
den  was  the  old  obstacles  to  the  American  Episco 
pate. 

REVEREND  SIR,  —  I  cannot  let  your  son  leave  this  part 
of  the  world  without  taking  the  opportunity  of  writing  a  few 
lines  to  you  in  answer  to  your  letter  delivered  to  me  by  Mr. 
Marshall.1  The  Society,  entirely  satisfied  with  the  testimo 
nial  he  has  brought  with  him,  and  with  the  assurances  of  a 
sufficient  allowance  from  the  inhabitants  of  Woodbury,  has 
recommended  him  to  me  for  orders.  And,  as  I  am  always 
unwilling  to  keep  the  candidates  from  America  longer  than 
is  necessary,  especially  as  their  stay  is  attended  with  expense, 
I  shall  lose  no  time  in  ordaining  Mr.  Marshall,  provided  he 
is  found,  as  I  trust  he  will  [be],  properly  qualified  for  the 
profession.  The  character  you  give  of  him,  with  regard  to 
his  morals  and  behavior,  will  entitle  him  to  some  indulgence, 
if  he  has  not  made  that  progress  in  languages  which  we  wish 
to  find,  though  sometimes  obliged  to  excuse,  in  our  candi 
dates. 

I  feel  as  sensibly  as  you  can  wish  me  to  do,  the  distress 
of  the  Americans  in  being  obliged,  at  so  much  hazard  and 

1  Rev.  John  R.  Marshall,  bred  a  merchant,  and  afterwards  turning  his  attention  to 
theology,  pursued  his  studies  under  Dr.  Johnson,  and  was  licensed  for  Woodbury, 
Conn.,  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  July  28,  1771.  He  received  the  degree  of  M.  A. 
honoris  causa,  from  King's  College,  N.  Y.,  1773. 


346  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

expense,  to  come  to  this  country  for  orders.  But  I  own  I 
see  no  prospect  of  a  speedy  remedy  to  it.  They  who  are  en 
emies  to  the  measure  of  an  Episcopacy,  whether  on  your  part 
of  the  globe  or  ours,  have  hitherto  found  means  to  prevent 
its  taking  place  ;  though  no  measure  can  be  better  suited 
to  every  principle  of  true  policy,  none  can  be  more  consist 
ent  with  every  idea  I  have  formed  of  truly  religious  liberty. 
We  want  no  other  motive  for  declaring  our  sentiments  and 
wishes  on  the  subject,  but  what  arise  from  the  expediency, 
I  had  almost  said,  the  necessity  of  putting  the  American 
Church  upon  a  more  respectable  plan  by  the  appointment  of 
a  Bishop.  But  whatever  are  our  sentiments  or  wishes,  we 
must  leave  it  to  the  discretion  and  wisdom  of -Government  to 
choose  the  time  for  adopting  that  measure.  Whether  we 
shall  live  to  see  that  day,  is  in  the  hands  of  God  alone.  We 
wish  only  that  we  could  look  forward  with  pleasure  and  en 
joy  the  thought. 

Accept,  sir,  my  best  wishes  for  everything  which  may  con 
tribute  to  your  health  and  happiness,  and  assure  yourself 
that  I  am,  with  great  truth  and  sincerity, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

Ric.  LONDON. 

FULHAM,  July  22,  1771. 

In  replying  to  this  letter,  Johnson  affirmed  that  no 
one  could  be  more  concerned  than  he  that  the  Church 
should  always,  as  far  as  possible,  have  a  learned  min 
istry  ;  but  in  such  a  country  as  America  then  was, 
much  learning  could  not  ordinarily  be  expected.  He 
was  glad  his  Lordship  felt  so  sensibly  "  the  distress 
of  Americans  "  on  being  without  Bishops,  and  apolo 
gizing  for  the  importunity  of  his  brethren  in  Con 
necticut,  who,  contrary  to  his  advice,  had  made  an 
other  address  for  them,  he  asked :  "  Is  the  case 
incurable  ?  Is  there  no  remedy  ?  Must  we  forever 
go  a  thousand  leagues  for  every  ordination  ?  Can  it 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  347 

be  that  the  English  Government  should  suffer  such 
an  encroachment  upon  Christian  liberty  to  the  Eng 
lish  Church  in  any  part  of  its  dominions  ?  I  foresee," 
he  continued,  "  fearful  consequences,  political  as  well 
as  religious,  that  will  inevitably  follow  it."  If  there 
was  no  prospect  of  relief,  if  all  hope  and  dependence 
on  England  must  be  relinquished,  he  thought  that  a 
number  of  the  clergy  would  be  disposed  to  apply  to 
some  other  Episcopal  Church  —  perhaps  the  Mora 
vian  —  to  give  them  Bishops,  "  being  conscientiously 
persuaded  that  Episcopacy,  such  as  it  was  in  St.  Cyp 
rian's  time,  was  the  only  form  of  government  that 
the  Apostles  established  in  the  Church." 

The  following  reply  to  Dr.  Berkeley,  if  not  his  last 
letter  to  England,  was  his  last  to  that  devoted  friend 
of  his  son  and  of  the  American  Church.  It  shows 
the  depth  of  his  feelings,  and  the  great  thought  which 
ever  rose*  in  his  mind  as  he  turned  to  survey  "  the 
branch  of  God's  planting  "  in  this  land. 

November  10,  1771. 

REVEREND  AND  MOST  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  am  most  intensely 
thankful  to  our  good  God  that  he  hath  so  graciously  preserved 
my  dear  son  to  me  and  his  family,  and  us  to  him  through 
his  long  absence  and  many  dangers,  and  at  length  restored 
him  to  us  and  given  us  to  rejoice  together  in  all  the  great 
goodness  of  his  kind  Providence  both  towards  him  and  us. 
And  now  I  return  my  most  affectionate  thanks  to  your  very 
excellent  mother  and  lady  and  dear  sons  for  the  great  kindness 
and  affection  wherewith  you  have  treated  him  in  his  absence 
from  us.  May  my  God  abundantly  reward  all  your  good 
ness  and  beneficence. 

I  was  much  grieved  for  the  miscarriage  of  your  kind  an 
swer  to  my  last  letter,  wherein  you  opened  your  mind  with 
so  much  freedom.  I  thank  you  for  it,  though  I  had  it  not, 


348  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

and  I  could  wish  you  yet  to  give  me  a  short  recapitulation  of 
it.  I  am  unwilling  to  give  up  all  hopes  of  seeing  you  in 
America,  at  least  of  your  being  our  first  Bishop,  for  then  I 
could  trust  that  we  should  set  out  upon  the  foot  of  true,  gen 
uine,  primitive  Christianity  ;  and  if  you  be  not  yourself  the 
man,  I  beg  of  you  through  your  whole  life  strongly  to  inter 
est  yourself  in  our  affairs,  and  so  far  as  is  possible  to  influence 
that  we  may  have  one  or  more  Bishops,  and  that  they  be 
true,  primitive  Christians  ;  otherwise,  if  they  are  mere  men 
of  this  world,  we  are  indeed  better  without  them. 

I  rejoice  and  bless  God  that  there  is  one  such  in  these 
abandoned  times  as  Bishop  North,  and  he  so  young,  too,  and 
that  of  a  noble  family.  Such  an  one  is  a  phrenix  indeed. 
I  desire  you,  if  you  think  proper,  to  give  my  dutiful  compli 
ments  to  him,  and  let  him  know  that,  as  I  am  the  oldest  of 
the  clergy  here,  I  humbly  beg  he  would  pity  our  deplorable 
condition  in  being  obliged  to  go  a  thousand  leagues  for  every 
ordination,  and  use  all  the  influence  in  his  power  without 
ceasing,  till  we  are  provided  with  a  Bishop  to  ordain  and 
govern  the  clergy  here.  I  earnestly  pray  God  to  bless  you, 
my  dear  sir,  and  that  worthy  lady  your  mother,  together 
with  your  lady  and  dear  offspring,  with  all  the  blessings  of 
this  life,  and  that  we  may  all  at  length  be  happy  together  in 
a  better  world,  I  am,  etc. 

Nearly  forty  years  before,  when  Dean  Berkeley  was 
promoted  to  the  see  of  Cloyne,  Johnson  wrote  to  a 
London  friend,  expressing  his  joy  at  the  appointment, 
but  regretting  that  it  had  not  been  an  English  Bish 
opric,  for  then,  he  said,  "  he  would  have  been  in  the 
way  of  being  more  useful  to  the  Church  in  these  parts 
of  the  world."  The  zealous  son  was  untiring  in  his 
efforts  to  prosecute  what  the  father  could  really  do 
nothing  towards  accomplishing,  and,  at  a  later  day, 
was  of  personal  service  to  Dr.  Seabury  in  securing  his 
consecration  to  the  Apostolic  office  from  a  church 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  '  349 

north  of  the  Tweed,  where  there  were  no  State  oaths 
to  hamper  the  little  college  of  bishops,  and  no  silken 
cord  binding  together  the  crown  and  the  crosier.1 

The  waning  year  brought  peace  and  quietness  to 
Johnson.  He  left  his  parochial  duties  chiefly  to  the 
care  of  his  assistant,  and  while  he  lived  in  the  scenes 
and  recollections  of  the  past  rather  than  in  the  dis 
tractions  and  political  uncertainties  of  the  present,  he 
did  not  forget  the  nearness  of  the  end,  much  less  con 
template  it  with  indifference.  He  often  wished  for  a 
peaceful  exit,  and  prayed  that  his  death  might  re 
semble  that  of  his  good  friend,  Bishop  Berkeley. 
Though  apparently  little  indisposed,,  yet  finding  his 
strength  to  be  failing  him,  on  the  morning  of  January 
6,  1772,  he  conversed  calmly  with  his  family  upon 
the  subject  of  his  departure,  said  that  he  was  "  going 
home,"  and  then  sank  to  rest  quietly,  so  as  the  "Lord 
giveth  his  beloved  sleep."  An  extract  from  the  letter 
which  his  son  wrote  to  Bishop  Lowth  a  week  after  the 
event,  furnishes  a  good  description  of  his  last  mo 
ments. 

STRATFORD  IN  CONNECTICUT,  January  13,  1772. 

MY  LOED,  —  I  did  myself  the  honor  to  write  your  Lord 
ship  a  short  letter  on  my  arrival  in  this  country,  acknowl 
edging  the  honor  of  your  favor  of  the  29th  of  June,  from 
Cuddesden,  which  I  received  just  as  1  left  London  ;  and  pre 
senting  to  your  Lordship  mine  and  my  good  father's  duty. 

I  have  now  the  misfortune  to  inform  your  Lordship  of  the 
departure  of  my  father,  who  left  us  the  morning  of  the  Epiph 
any  full  of  faith  and  hope,  and  we  doubt  not  has  entered 
into  the  joy  of  our  Lord.  He  died  as  he  had  lived,  with 
great  composure  and  serenity  of  mind,  and  had  just  such  a 

1  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  D.  D.,  was  publicly  consecrated  Bishop  of  Connecticut 
at  Aberdeen,  on  Sunday,  the  14th  of  November,  1784. 


350  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

transition  as  one  would  wish  for  his  best  friend.  He  often 
wished,  and  repeated  it  the  morning  of  his  departure,  that  he 
might  resemble  in  his  death  his  friend,  the  late  excellent 
Bishop  Berkeley,  whose  virtues  he  labored  to  imitate  in  his 
life,  and  Heaven  heard  his  prayer ;  for,  like  him,  he  expired 
sitting  up  in  his  chair,  without  a  struggle  or  a  groan.  It 
would  be  very  inexcusable  in  me  to  trouble  your  Lordship 
with  this  minute  account,  were  it  not  also  my  duty  to  ac 
quaint  your  Lordship,  that  from  the  great  satisfaction  and  im 
provement  he  had  received  from  your  writings,  my  father 
had  often  assured  me  since  my  return  that  he  had  the  great 
est  respect,  veneration,  and  esteem  for  your  Lordship,  of  any 
man  now  living.  That  respect  and  esteem,  give  me  leave  to 
say,  will  live  in  his  family  and  among  all  his  acquaintance, 
upon  whom  he  sought  to  inculcate  it 

The  funeral  of  Dr.  Johnson  took  place  at  Stratford 
two  days  after  his  decease,  and  the  clergy  from  the 
neighboring  towns  were  present ;  one  of  whom,  the 
Rev.  Jeremiah  Learning  of  Norwalk,  delivered  a  ser 
mon  in  commemoration  of  his  acquirements  and  Chris 
tian  character.  His  long  tried  and  particular  friend, 
the  Rev.  John  Beach  of  Newtown,  had  been  selected 
for  this  office,  but  want  of  health  prevented  his  at 
tendance  at  the  funeral,  though  the  sermon  which  he 
prepared  was  afterwards  preached  and  published.  It 
dwelt  largely  upon  the  wisdom  of  diverting  the 
stream  of  our  thoughts  from  this  visible  world  to 
eternal  things,  and  contained  tributes  to  the  memory 
of  the  great  man,  which  were  neither  fanciful  nor  un 
deserved.  "  With  much  satisfaction,"  said  he,  "  and 
the  recollection  of  many  advantages  I  have  received, 
I  call  to  mind  the  acquaintance  which  I  have  had 
with  this  excellent  divine  for  more  than  fifty-five 
years ;  and  without  an  hyperbole,  I  may  say  it,  I 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  351 

know  not  that  ever  I  conversed  with  him  without 
finding  myself  afterwards  the  better  for  it.  He  had 
from  his  youth  devoted  himself  to  the  sacred  minis 
try,  and  the  studies  which  qualify  for  it  he  followed 
with  unwearied  application,  which  a  firm  constitution 
enabled  him  to  pursue  even  in  old  age."  He  closed 
a  description  of  his  intellectual  attainments  with  these 
words :  "  The  sum  is  this  ;  he  was  the  most  excellent 
scholar,  and  most  accomplished  divine,  that  this  col 
ony  ever  had  to  glory  in,  and  what  is  infinitely  more 
excellent,  he  was  an  eminent  Christian." 

Other  memorial  sermons  were  preached,  one  by 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Inglis  in  Trinity.  Church,  New  York, 
where  his  name  was  held  in  grateful  remembrance 
for  services  rendered  to  the  parish,  and  to  the  college 
with  which  the  parish  was  in  a  measure  identified. 
The  loss  of  such  a  guiding  light  was  felt  by  the  de 
pressed  Church  of  England  in  this  country,  especially 
in  the  Northern  colonies,  and  no  pen  of  equal  zeal, 
ability,  and  influence,  was  ready  to  take  up  the  corres 
pondence  which  he  had  so  long  conducted  with  Brit 
ish  minds  interested  in  the  progress  of  Christianity 
on  the  American  continent.  The  times  grew  more 
eventful,  and  soon  the  troubles  which  produced  the 
Revolution  interrupted  communication,  and  sadder 
than  all  the  days  before  were  those  which  came  to 
the  supporters  of  Episcopacy. 

"  As  to  Dr.  Johnson's  person,"  says  Chandler,  "  he 
was  rather  tall,  and,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  con 
siderably  corpulent.  There  was  something  in  his 
countenance  that  was  pleasing  and  familiar,  and  that 
indicated  the  benevolence  of  his  heart ;  and  yet,  at 
the  same  time  it  was  majestic,  and  commanded  re- 


352  LIFE   AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

spect.  He  had  a  ruddiness  of  complexion,  which  was 
the  effect  of  natural  constitution,  and  was  sometimes 
farther  brightened  by  a  peculiar  briskness  in  the  cir 
culation  of  his  spirits,  brought  on  by  the  exercise  of 
the  benevolent  affections."  l 

Frequent  reference  has  been  made  in  this  volume 
to  his  autobiography,  which  he  began  in  the  seven 
tieth  year  of  his  age,  and  completed  after  the  return 
of  his  son  from  England.  It  was  written  in  the  third 
person,  and  is  entitled,  "  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Johnson,  and  several  Things  relating  to  the 
state  both  of  Religion  and  Learning  in  his  Times. " 
This  manuscript  with  other  papers  was  confided  to 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Chandler  of  Elizabeth  town,  and  liberty 
given  him  to  use  them  freely  in  preparing  a  more 
elaborate  account  of  the  life  and  character  of  his  ever 
honored  friend  and  patron.  The  colonial  disturb 
ances  thickened,  and  even  before  the  work  was  ready 
for  the  press,  the  son  wrote  to  Dr.  Chandler  express 
ing  his  fears  about  publishing :  "  I  am  at  a  loss  what 
to  say  upon  the  subject.  On  the  one  hand,  I  should 
be  extremely  glad  to  have  anything  published  which 
would  subserve  the  general  interest  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  tend  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  my 
father,  and  I  know  you  will  render  whatever  you  pub 
lish  as  perfect  and  unexceptionable  as  possible.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  age  is  so  captious  and  so  glutted 
with  publications  of  every  kind,  and  we  have  so 
many  malicious  adversaries  working  and  watching  for 
every  circumstance  of  which  they  may  take  advan 
tage,  and  upon  which  to  ground  a  controversy  or  ex 
cite  a  clamor,  that  I  am  sometimes  in  doubt  whether 
it  be  best  to  publish  anything  of  this  kind  or  not." 

l  Life  of  Johnson,  p.  1^6. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  353 

Prudent  friends  advised  delay,  —  among  them  Mr. 
Beach  of  Newtown,  who,  in  September  1774,  wrote  to 
the  hesitating  son,  who  had  placed  the  manuscript  in 
his  hands,  and  asked  his  opinion  :  "  I  should  think 
that  it  might  be  obvious  to  the  slightest  observer, 
that  this  day  of  rage  and  madness  is  not  the  most 
favorable  for  publications  of  this  nature."  l 

He  had  full  liberty  to  communicate  this  opinion  to 
Dr.  Chandler,  and  in  doing  so  he  expressed  his  own 
concurrence  in  it,  and  added  :  "  I  am  further  confirmed 
in  this  idea  from  the  insolent  spirit  which  is  lately  ex 
cited  against  the  professors  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  particularly  throughout  New  England,  from  an 
apprehension  that  we  are  not  sufficiently  zealous  in 
the  cause  of  American  liberty.  A  publication  of  this 
kind  would  on  that  account,  I  have  no  doubt,  be 
particularly  obnoxious  at  this  juncture,  and  had  bet 
ter  be  postponed  to  some  more  favorable  opportunity. 
For  these  reasons,  I  have  not  read  the  papers  with 
a  view  to  any  corrections  or  additions,  as  I  should 
have  done,  had  I  conceived  it  advisable  to  publish. 
As  you  proposed  to  transcribe  the  work  again,  I  have 
returned  the  original  memoir." 

Dr.  Chandler  was  soon  after  forced  by  the  outbursts 
of  popular  fury  to  quit  his  parish,  and  with  Dr. 
Cooper  of  New  York  sailed  for  England.  Probably 
he  never  found  time  to  transcribe  his  manuscript,  and 
the  wonder  is  how  it  escaped  the  many  perils  to 
which  it  was  subjected  on  his  journeys.  3  It  fell  at 
length  into  the  hands  of  his  son-in-law,3  who  pub 
lished  it  more  than  thirty  years  after  its  preparation, 

1  See  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut,  vol.  i.  pp.  296,  297. 

*  See  Appendix  B. 

»  Bt.  Rev.  John  Henry  Hobart,  D.  D.,  third  Bishop  of  New  York. 


354  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE 

in  a  small  duodecimo  volume  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pages,  besides  an  appendix  containing  a  few  let 
ters  ;  and  he  took  care  to  mention  in  his  preface 
that  "  however  humble  may  be  the  early  annals  of 
his  country,  they  should  be  interesting  to  every 
American,  and  whatever  tends  to  throw  light  on  them 
should  be  deemed  worthy  of  preservation.'* 

The  little  volume  embraced  the  substance  of  the 
autobiography,  and  is  at  best  but  a  meagre  sketch 
which  did  slender  justice  to  the  intellectual  eminence 
and  personal  worth  of  Johnson.  Had  he  lived  in 
these  times,  he  would  have  been  distinguished  among 
men  of  learning,  and  recognized  by  them  as  an  hon 
est  and  patient  lover  of  truth  and  justice.  That  he 
attained  to  such  excellence  under  all  the  disadvantages 
of  the  period  in  which  he  was  a  conspicuous  actor,  is 
remarkable.  He  dared  to  think  for  himself,  and  if 
his  keen  penetration  discovered  defects  in  theological 
and  philosophical  systems,  he  was  careful  not  to  ac 
cept  any  new  views  until  he  had  fairly  examined  the 
opposing  arguments  and  tested  them  by  the  strong 
est  proofs  within  his  reach.  It  was  in  this  way  that 
he  "  gradually  exchanged  the  principles  of  the  old 
philosophy  for  those  of  the  Newtonian  system,"  that 
he  relinquished  the  rigid  predestinarian  tenets  for 
what  appeared  to  be  more  rational  and  Scriptural 
doctrines,  and  that  he  gave  in  his  adhesion  to  the 
Church  of  England  while  there  were  many  worldly 
motives  leading  him  to  cling  to  "  the  provincial 
standard  of  orthodoxy." 

As  a  preacher,  Dr.  Johnson,  in  the  golden  prime 
of  his  years,  had  attractive  qualities.  He  himself 
said  to  his  grandson  towards  the  end  of  his  days. 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  356 

that  if  he  had  been  eminent  for  anything,  it  was  for 
his  eloquence.  But  eloquence  has  different  forms 
of  expression,  and  may  not  necessarily  consist  in 
studied  rhetoric  and  passionate  declamation.  The 
power  to  interest  and  edify  an  audience,  to  move 
the  heart  and  produce  conviction,  is  a  high  intel 
lectual  quality,  and  the  divine  who  possesses  it,  is 
in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word,  eloquent.  With 
a  mind  rich  in  theological  lore,  with  clearness  of 
method  and  plainness  of  speech,  and  with  an  ear 
nest  desire  to  promote  the  salvation  of  souls,  John 
son  was  a  minister  in  the  Church  of  Christ  whom 
neither  the  learned  nor  the  unlearned  could  hear 
without  pleasure  and  profit.  The  people  followed 
him  for  the  Word's  sake,  and  it  is  upon  record  that  at 
Christmas  and  other  high  festivals,  his  house  was 
thronged  for  successive  days  with  worshippers  from  the 
adjacent  towns,  who  came  to  Stratford  to  enjoy  the 
benefit  of  his  public  and  private  ministrations. 

If  he  was  great  in  pulpit  eloquence  and  parochial 
duties,  he  was  greater  in  his  library  and  as  an  educa 
tor  in  systematic  divinity  and  the  laws  of  ecclesiasti 
cal  polity.  The  Church  in  the  northern  portion  of  this 
country  is  largely  indebted  to  him  for  training  a  gen 
eration  of  clergymen,  who,  with  rare  exceptions, 
adorned  their  vocation,  and  left  the  impress  of  their 
characters  upon  the  communities  in  wrhich  they  were 
appointed  to  labor.  It  is  something  to  be  thankful 
for,  that  in  its  headless  condition  there  was  one  who 
knew  so  well  how  to  instruct  and  guide  the  young 
candidates  for  Holy  Orders,  and  to  send  them  forth 
with  his  own  passport  on  their  perilous  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic.  He  had  a  profound  sense  of  the  grand- 


356  LIFE    AND   CORRESPONDENCE 

eur  of  the  profession  of  a  clergyman,  and  felt  rightly 
enough  that  he  could  not  be  mistaken  in  educating 
those  who  came  under  his  care,  never  to  forget  how 
their  names  were  to  become  historic  as  pioneers  of 
the  Church  in  a  new  country,  where  all  models  of 
Christian  character  that  did  not  approach  the  perfect 
ONE,  would  be  despised  or  discredited. 

It  was  a  frequent  expression  of  his  to  speak  of  the 
age  as  "  abandoned  and  apostatizing."  He  used  it 
in  reference  to  the  tendency  of  the  times  to  infidelity, 
and  seemed  to  have  no  patience  with  those  who  were 
ready  to  exchange  the  beauty  of  the  Christian  life 
and  the  vitality  of  the  Christian  faith  for  the  cold 
dreams  and  theories  of  men  of  reprobate  minds.  Up 
to  his  decease,  there  had  been  no  writers  against 
Divine  Revelation  in  this  country  worthy  of  note, 
but  there  had  been  large  importations  of  skeptical 
books,  and  not  a  little  mischief  had  been  wrought  by 
their  circulation.  He  made  it  his  business  to  acquaint 
himself  with  all  publications  of  this  nature,  that  he 
might  know  how  to  disarm  the  enemy  and  meet  the 
demand  for  unreasonable  and  impossible  conditions  of 
belief.  The  brightest  minds  among  the  Dissenters, 
however  much  they  might  differ  from  him  on  doc 
trinal  points  and  questions  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  made 
common  cause  with  him  in  the  defense  of  the  foun 
dations  of  our  faith,  and  shared  his  anxiety  to  clear 
away  the  clouds  of  infidelity.  They  respected  him 
for  his  learning  and  logical  skill,  and  welcomed  his 
Bystem  of  philosophy  as  a  most  commendable  effort 
in  the  interests  and  direction  of  the  truth. 

A  century  has  passed  by  and  the  new  atheism  of 
this  day  needs  to  be  met  with  something  besides  the 


OF   SAMUEL  JOHNSON.  357 

older  works  on  Christian  evidence.  Bishop  Butler, 
who  spoke  to  the  mind  of  the  English  nation,  in  his 
celebrated  "  Analogy,"  has  never  been  answered,  nor 
have  the  testimonies  collected  by  Leland  and  Leslie  ; 
but  they  are  little  read  now,  for  modern  infidelity 
addresses  itself  not  so  much  to  men  of  culture  and 
refinement,  as  to  the  popular  imagination,  weaving 
itself  into  a  miscellaneous  literature,  and  at  best  pre 
senting  a  masked  portraiture  of  Christianity  to  blind 
the  eyes  of  the  unwary. 

Dr.  Johnson  trusted  firmly  in  the  Divine  promises, 
and  did  not  believe  that  "  the  motley  crew  of  Deists, 
Socinians,  Arians,  and  factious  unbelievers "  of  his 
time,  as  the  son  of  Bishop  Berkeley  termed  them, 
could  demolish  what  is  founded  on  a  rock.  He  de 
fended  the  faith  heroically,  and  trained  others  to  im 
itate  himself,  and  be  ready  to  "banish  and  drive 
away  from  the  Church  all  erroneous  and  strange  doc 
trines  contrary  to  God's  word."  His  name  will  ever 
have  an  important  place  in  American  history,  and 
the  more  his  character  is  studied,  the  more  it  will  be 
seen  how  he  applied  his  learning  and  Christian  phi 
losophy  to  the  good  of  his  country,  and  the  advance 
ment  of  the  "  one  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church," 
in  whose  bosom  the  Lord  "  has  promised  his  blessing 
and  life  forevermore." 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX   A. 


THE  following  letter,  an  accurate  copy  of  the  original,  ap 
pears  with  slight  variations  in  Boswell's  "  Life  of  Johnson." 
A  foot-note  credited  to  the  "  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  states 
that  "  several  letters  passed  between  them,  after  the  American 
Dr  Johnson  had  returned  to  his  native  country  ;  of  which, 
however,  it  is  found  that  this  is  the  only  one  remaining." 

It  is  "  the  only  one  "  to  which  an  answer  has  been  found, 
and  the  answer  is  here  printed  for  the  first  time  from  the 
original  draught.  He  is  known  to  have  written  one  other 
letter,  but  probably  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  inter 
rupted  the  correspondence.  This  was  sent  under  cover,  as 
appears  from  the  filling  up  of  the  superscription,  to  Rev.  Mr. 
White,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  to  whom  the  Eng 
lish  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  the  same  date,  saying  :  "  I  take  the 
liberty  which  you  give  me,  of  troubling  you  with  a  letter, 
of  which  you  will  please  fill  up  the  direction." 

So  highly  did  he  esteem  his  American  friend,  that  he  pre 
sented  him,  before  leaving  England,  with  an  elegantly 
bound  copy  of  his  large  folio  Dictionary,  third  edition,  1765  ; 
and  an  engraving  o'f  himself,  from  a  painting  of  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds,  which  he  considered  his  best  likeness. 

To  DR.  JOHNSON  :  — 

Sir,  —  Of  all  those  whom  the  various  accidents  of  life 
have  brought  within  my  notice,  there  is  scarce  any  one  whose 


362  APPENDIX. 

acquaintance  I  have  more  desired  to  cultivate  than  yours.  I 
cannot  indeed  charge  you  with  neglecting  me,  yet  our  mutual 
inclination  could  scarce  gratify  itself  with  opportunities  ; 
the  current  of  the  day  always  bore  us  away  from  one  an 
other,  and  now  the  Atlantic  is  between  us. 

Whether  you  carried  away  an  impression  of  me  as  pleas 
ing  as  that  which  you  left  me  of  yourself,  I  know  not ;  if  you 
did,  you  have  not  forgotten  me,  and  will  be  glad  that  I  do  not 
forget  you.  Merely  to  be  remembered  is  indeed  a  barren 
pleasure,  but  it  is  one  of  the  pleasures  which  is  more  sensi 
bly  felt  as  human  nature  is  more  exalted. 

To  make  you  wish  that  I  should  have  you  in  my  mind,  I 
would  be  glad  to  tell  you  something  which  you  do  not  know, 
but  all  public  affairs  are  printed  ;  and  as  you  and  I  had  no 
common  friends,  I  can  tell  you  no  private  history. 

The  Government  I  think  grows  stronger,  but  I  am  afraid 
the  next  general  election  will  be  a  time  of  uncommon  turbu 
lence,  violence,  and  outrage. 

Of  Literature  no  great  product  has  appeared,  or  is  ex 
pected  ;  the  attention  of  the  people  has  for  some  years  been 
otherwise  employed. 

I  was  told  two  days  ago  of  a  design  which  must  excite 
some  curiosity.  Two  ships  are  [in]  preparation,  which  are 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Constantine  Phipps,  to  ex 
plore  the  Northern  ocean,  not  to  seek  the  Northeast  or  the 
Northwest  passage,  but  to  sail  directly  north,  as  near  the 
pole  as  they  can  go.  They  hope  to  find  an  open  ocean,  but 
I  suspect  it  is  one  mass  of  perpetual  congelation.  I  do  not 
much  wish  well  to  discoveries,  for  I  am  always  afraid  they 
will  end  in  conquest  and  robbery. 

I  have  been  out  of  order  this  winter,  but  am  grown  better. 
Can  I  ever  hope  to  see  you  again  ;  or  must  I  be  always  con 
tent  to  tell  you  that  in  another  hemisphere, 

I  am,  Sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 

JOHNSON'S  COURT,  FLEET  STREET,  LONDON,  March  4,  1773. 


APPENDIX.  363 

STRATFORD,  June  5,  1773. 

DEAR  AND  RESPECTED  SIR,  —  I  am  perfectly  unable  to 
express  the  grateful  sense  I  have  of  the  singular  honor  you 
have  done  me  by  your  favor  of  the  4th  of  March.  There  was 
no  man  in  England  whose  acquaintance  I  so  much  wished  to 
be  honored  with  when  I  first  embarked  in  my  late  voyage. 
Your  excellent  writings  had  given  me  the  highest  veneration 
and  esteem  of  your  character.  I  waited  some  time  for  some 
accidental  or  favorable  introduction  to  you,  but  when  none 
offered,  I  presumed  so  much  on  the  idea  I  had  formed  of  you, 
that  I  at  last  ventured  to  introduce  myself  to  you  in  the  ab 
rupt  manner  you  remember.  The  kind  and  obliging  recep 
tion  you  then  and  ever  after  gave  me,  when  I  waited  upon 
you,  confirmed  and  increased  my  respect,  and  your  kind  re 
membrance  of  me  now  lays  me  under  such  obligations  as  I 
must  never  hope  to  repay.  To  be  remembered  by  one  of  the 
first  characters  of  an  age  in  which  there  are  so  few  whose  re 
membrance  is  not  rather  a  reproach  than  an  honor,  is,  I  as 
sure  you,  to  me  one  of  the  highest  pleasures  that  I  am  capa 
ble  of. 

I  bless  God  that  at  the  date  of  your  letter  you  were  re 
turning  again  to  health,  which  I  hope  will  be  very  long  con 
tinued  to  you  not  only  for  your  own  sake,  but  of  human 
nature,  which  will  be  benefited  by  your  labors,  for  you  live 
not  for  yourself,  but  for  all  mankind. 

It  will,  I  hope,  be  some  satisfaction  to  you  to  know  that 
your  writings  are  in  the  highest  esteem  and  are  doing  much 
good  in  this  extensive  and  growing  country,  and  will,  I  doubt 
not,  continue  to  do  so  to  very  late  posterity,  for  which  reason, 
as  well  as  for  the  increase  of  your  reputation,  which  I  assure 
you  is  very  dear  to  me,  I  hope  you  will  be  still  preparing 
something  for  the  public,  who  will  read  with  the  utmost 
avidity  whatever  appears  under  the  sanction  of  your  name. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  learn  from  so  good  an  au 
thority  that  Government  grows  stronger.  You  had  indeed 
convinced  me  that  the  alarm  which  the  factious  and  the  des 
perate  had  excited  was  false,  but  I  hardly  expected  when  I 


364  APPENDIX. 

left  England  that  Government  would  have  obtained  so 
speedy  and  so  manifest  a  superiority  over  the  friends  of  con 
fusion,  as,  if  we  may  credit  the  printed  accounts,  it  seems  to 
have  done.  From  them  it  would  seem  as  if  the  cause  of  op 
position  was  almost  desperate.  It  must  be  expected,  how 
ever,  that  every  effort  will  be  made  to  revive  it  against  the 
next  general  election,  and  I  wish  your  apprehensions  may  not 
be  verified  :  but  still  I  hope  there  is  no  great  danger  of  their 
gaining  so  great  advantages  as  to  enable  them  to  do  much 
mischief  to  the  public.  Upon  the  stability  of  Government 
will  depend  also  in  a  high  degree  the  felicity  of  this  country. 
The  Government  have  much  to  do  here  when  the  opinion 
that  has  been  maintained  by  the  Boston  Assembly  [in]  a 
late  dispute  with  no  opposition  to  their  Governor,  that  the 
Colonies  are  independent  of  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain, 
gains  ground,  and  will  require  their  attention  unless  they 
mean  to  acquiesce  in  the  idea  and  give  up  their  authority 
over  us,  which  I  presume  they  will  not  be  inclined  to  do. 

The  design  you  mention  of  exploring  the  Northern  Ocean, 
is  an  experiment  of  great  curiosity,  and  I  shall  be  impatient 
to  know  the  success  of  it.  I  have  ever  entertained  the  opin 
ion  you  seem  to  have  adopted  that  the  Pole  is  the  empire  of 
frost  and  snow,  which  will  effectually  forever  stop  the  gains 
from  those  evils  which,  as  you  justly  remark,  have  generally 
been  the  consequence  of  discoveries.  Neither  ambition  nor 
avarice,  I  fancy,  will  there  have  any  opportunity  for  grat 
ification  ;  we  shall  only  acquire  an  innocent  and  perhaps  use 
less  acquaintance  with  an  unknown  part  of  our  globe. 

I  wish  I  could  gratify  you  with  any  intelligence  from  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic ;  but  nothing  occurs  to  me  worthy  of 
your  notice.  I  have  lost  since  my  return  to  America  my 
venerable  father,  who,  to  his  other  good  qualities,  added  a 
sincere  respect  and  esteem  for  you,  and  was  extremely  minute 
and  particular  in  his  inquiries  concerning  you.  We  had  the 
happiness  to  spend  three  months  together  after  my  return, 
when  he  expired  full  of  days,  satisfied  with  life,  with  hopes 
full  of  immortality,  and  without  a  groan  or  any  apparent 
previous  pain. 


APPENDIX.  365 

For  myself  I  am  again  engaged  largely  in  the  busy,  and  in 
this  country  not  very  profitable  profession  of  the  law,  which, 
however,  answers  tolerably  well  for  the  support  of  the  numer 
ous  young  family  with  which  God  has  blessed  me.  That  you 
may  enjoy  every  felicity,  and  long,  very  long  continue  as  you 
have  done  to  bless  mankind,  be  useful  to  the  world,  is  and 
will  be  the  sincere  and  ardent  prayer  of,  dear  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  and  most  faithful  humble  servant, 

WM.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 

Co  DB.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 

Johnson's  Court,  Fleet  Street,  London. 


APPENDIX   B. 


ELIZABETH-TOWN,  June  20,  1774. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  The  not  seeing  you  on  your  return  from 
Philadelphia  last  winter,  was  a  considerable  disappointment 
to  me,  as  I  partly  depended  upon  your  spending  a  day  here, 
that  we  might  have  time  to  read  over,  while  together,  the 
"  Life  "  of  your  father  which  I  had  compiled  a  year  before. 
If  I  could  have  consented  to  send  it  to  the  press  without  your 
inspection  and  examination,  it  would  have  been  published 
long  ago,  but  I  have  all  along  been  impressed  with  a  strong 
sense  both  of  your  right  to  be  consulted,  and  of  the  advant 
age  which  the  work  would  receive  from  your  correction,  and 
perhaps  from  your  addition,  which  has  hitherto,  and  will  still 
cause  me  to  suppress  it,  till  it  can  be  honored  with  your  Im 
primatur.  With  a  view  chiefly  to  this  I  have  proposed  from 
time  to  time,  to  take  a  journey  into  New  England  ;  but  diffi 
culties  have  as  often  arisen  to  interrupt  me.  Once  indeed,  I 
could  have  come,  but  I  recollected  that  you  must  then  be  en 
gaged  in  attendance  upon  the  General  Court  at  Hartford, 
and  consequently  would  not  be  at  leisure,  nor  at  home  to 
consider  matters  of  a  literary  nature.  As,  therefore,  I  have 
no  prospect  of  going  your  way,  and  hear  not  of  your  intend 
ing  to  come  this  way,  during  the  present  summer,  I  have 
determined  to  send  you,  as  I  am  like  to  have  no  opportunity 
of  bringing i  the  rough  copy  of  the  "  Life  ;  "  requesting  you 
to  examine  it  very  closely,  and  to  make  such  corrections  upon 
any  parts  of  it  as  may  occur  upon  a  careful  perusal.  I  ex 
pect  Mr.  Beach  to  call  upon  me  in  an  hour  or  two  in  his 
way  to  New  England,  by  whom  I  propose  to  send  it ;  and  if 


APPENDIX.  367 

you  can  be  ready  to  return  it  by  him,1  it  will  be  so  much  the 
better.  * 

I  shall  send  with  it  your  father's  MS.  that  you  may  com 
pare  them  together.  On  that  comparison  you  will  find  that 
I  have  used  it  only  as  a  guide,  preserving  the  facts  in  their 
chronological  order,  adding  many  anecdotes  collected  from 
other  quarters,  and  some  of  them  recollected  from  what  I 
formerly  knew,  and  expressing  the  whole  in  my  own  lan 
guage.  This  I  thought  would  better  answer  the  general  de 
sign  than  confining  myself  more  strictly  to  the  MS.  I  have 
concluded  the  whole  with  a  portrait  of  the  character  of  my 
beloved  patron  and  friend.  I  could  wish  to  do  it  justice  ;  in 
order  to  which  I  would  neither  say  too  much  nor  too  little. 
As  I  find  that  private  affection  is  apt  to  predominate,  I  have 
endeavored  to  be  on  my  guard,  in  this  part,  which  is  by  far 
the  most  difficult  of  the  whole.  Be  so  good,  therefore,  as  to 
bestow  a  particular  attention  to  this  part,  and  advise  and 
assist  me  in  it  with  all  freedom. 

.  In  transcribing  for  the  press,  I  fancy  I  can  make  some  con 
siderable  improvements,  especially  by  way  of  notes.  I  have, 
as  you  will  see,  made  some  references  to.  authors,  extracts 
from  which  are  intended  for  that  use. 

As  soon  as  you  return  the  "  Life,"  I  think  of  issuing  Pro 
posals -to  see  what  encouragement  can  be  procured  for  a  pub 
lication  of  this  nature.  New  England,  and  especially  Con 
necticut,  I  flatter  myself,  will  subscribe  liberally  to  the  work. 
New  York  may  be  expected  to  do  something,  and  the  Colo 
nies  to  the  southward  of  it  but  very  little.  With  right  man 
agement  I  should  imagine  a  pretty  large  subscription  may  be 
procured  ;  in  which  case  I  may  save  myself  here,  although  I 
have  lost  money  by  every  former  publication  I  have  been 
concerned  in.  If  you  think  proper,  I  will  try  what  encour 
agement  can  be  had  for  a  volume  of  your  father's  sermons, 
towards  which  but  little  can  be  expected  this  way.  When  I 
have  done  what  I  have  to  do,  I  will  return  you  all  the  papers, 

1  Rev.  Abraham  Beach,  then  Missionary  of  the  Church  of  England  at  New  Bruns 
wick,  and  afterwards  assistant  minister  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York. 


368  APPENDIX. 

letters,  etc.,  which  you  were  so  good  as  to  transmit  to  me  • 
but  while  anything  is  depending,  it  is  best  that  they  should 
remain  in  my  hands  ;  for  which  reason  I  must  desire  you  to 
send  back  the  original  MS.,  from  which  the  "  Life  "  is  chiefly 
compiled. 

By  so  good  an  opportunity  I  shall  send  a  copy  of  my  "  Free 
Examination,"  etc.,  of  which  I  request  your  acceptance.  A 
few  copies  were  subscribed  for,  and  five  or  six  paid  for  in 
Connecticut ;  but  as  strange  as  it  may  seem,  I  have  not  been 
able  to  get  them  sent.  Gaine  says  it  has  not  been  possible 
to  procure  a  binder  to  do  them  up  in  New  York,  as  every 
person  of  that  occupation  was  previously  engaged  in  other 
business ;  however,  he  now  promises  that  they  shall  be  for 
warded  very  soon.  A  copy  arrived  in  England  about  the  be 
ginning  of  April ;  and  the  Bishops,  etc.,  ordered  the  sub- 
tance  of  my  4i  Free  Examination,"  together  with  Sherlock's 
"  Memorial,"  to  be  immediately  reprinted  there,  imagining  it 
might  be  of  service  at  that  critical  time  when  a  plan  was  un 
der  consideration  for  the  future  regulation  of  the  Colonies. 
Lord  Dartmouth  took  up  the  cause  of  the  Church,  and  ap 
pointed  to  meet,  and  consult  with  the  Bishop  of  London 
about  the  Episcopate  requested.  He  thought  of  bringing  the 
case  immediately  before  the  Parliament ;  but  the  Bishop  of 
Oxford  was  of  opinion  that  the  Parliament  had  no  business 
with  it,  and  that  it  was  best  to  wait  for  the  event  of  the  Bos 
ton  Expedition. 

With  compliments  to  Mrs.  Johnson,  Mr.  Kneeland,  and 
your  families, 

I  am,  with  great  truth  and  sincerity, 

Your  very  respectful  and  obedient  servant, 

THOMAS  B.  CHANDLEB. 
DR.  JOHNSON. 

After  the  Revolution  and  the  settlement  of  the  Govern 
ment,  he  wrote  again  in  answer  to  a  request  for  the  return  of 
the  papers  as  follows :  — 


APPENDIX  3Q9 

ELIZABETH-TOWN,  December  28,  1785. 

MY  DEAR  SDR,  —  Although  I  do  and  always  shall  think 
myself  honored  and  obliged  by  every  line  I  may  receive  from 
you,  yet  I  am  ashamed  that  I  have  given  occasion  for  that  of 
the  21st  instant,  by  not  sending  you,  or  at  least,  not  giving 
you  some  satisfaction  concerning  the  papers  of  your  most  ex 
cellent  father,  my  ever  honored  friend  and  patron.  I  am 
ashamed  too,  that  I  have  not  sooner  returned  the  "  Journal  " 
of  the  Convention  in  Virginia,  which  you  kindly  put  into  my 
hands  on  my  first  arrival  in  New  York.  These  neglects  will 
not  admit  of  a  full  justification,  yet  I  beg  you  to  allow  as 
much  as  you  can  to  the  following  apology. 

To  a  person  of  my  disposition,  and  in  my  situation,  it  was 
impossible,  for  a  considerable  while  after  I  got  home,  to  attend 
to  any  matters  of  business  excepting  that  kind  of  business 
mentioned  by  Sir  T.  Moore ;  nempe  reverse  domum,  cum 
uxore  fabulandum  est,  garriendum  cum  liberis,  colloquendum 
cum  ministris.  Quce  ego  omnia  inter  negotia  numero.  As 
soon  as  I  was  able  to  attend  to  other  matters,  I  found  my 
books  and  papers  in  such  confusion  and  so  widely  dispersed, 
many  of  them  being  still  in  New  York,  and  in  different 
hands  there,  that  it  was  the  work  of  much  time  to  collect 
and  arrange  them.  When  I  had  got  together  the  bigger 
part  of  your  father's  sermons,  letters,  etc.,  considering  that 
everything  of  the  kind  must  be  peculiarly  agreeable  to  the 
family,  I  meant  to  send  them  to  you  in  New  York,  but,  upon 
inquiry,  was  informed  that  you  were  gone  into  the  country. 
Mr.  Beach  paid  me  a  visit  about  the  10th  of  November,  and 
then  informed  me  that  you  were  not  in  town.  Since  that 
time  I  have  had  the  same  answer  to  the  same  question,  and 
did  not  know  of  your  return,  till  I  learned  it  from  your  letter. 
I  shall  now  soon  send  you,  to  the  care  of  Mr.  Livingston, 
the  various  articles  I  have  collected,  they  being,  in  my  opin 
ion,  too  bulky  to  go  by  post,  unless  divided  into  different 
parcels.  Most  of  the  Sermons  and  Letters  I  have  found,  and 
am  not  without  hopes  of  finding  the  remainder.  As  to  the 
"  Memoir,"  I  took  it  with  me  to  England,  imagining  it  would 
24 


370  APPENDIX. 

be  safer  with  me,  though  subject  to  the  perils  of  the  sea,  than 
if  left  behind,  "  in  perils  among  false  brethren."  I  brought 
it  back  with  me  in  good  preservation. 

I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  inclosing  a  letter  for  Bishop  Sea- 
bury,  and  must  beg  the  favor  of  your  passport  for  it.  I  now 
return  the  "  Journal  "  of  the  Convention  in  Virginia.  I  had 
hardly  time  to  read  it  in  New  York,  and  I  brought  it  over 
with  me,  that  I  might  be  able  to  give  a  better  account  of  the 
transactions  to  some  people  in  England,  in  letters  which  I 
was  a  long  time  in  writing.  After  making  this  use  of  it,  I 
meant  to  send  it  with  the  other  papers  ;  and  for  the  reasons 
assigned  above,  this  part  of  my  intention  has  not  sooner  been 
carried  into  execution.  In  the  meanwhile,  I  hope  you  have 
not  suffered  greatly  for  want  of  this  curious  publication.  A 
curiosity  indeed  it  is  for  it  exhibits  such  a  motley  mixture  of 
Episcopacy,  Presbytery  and  Ecclesiastical  Republicanism  as 
before  was  never  brought  together  and  incorporated,  and 
must  surprise  the  whole  Christian  world. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Convention  in  Philadelphia,  which 
is  to  be  considered  as  a  kind  of  (Ecumenical  Council,  were 
much  in  the  same  style,  though  not  so  wild  and  intemperate. 
In  their  Address  to  the  English  Archbishops,  they  say  that 
it  is  "  their  earnest  desire  and  resolution  to  retain  the  vener 
able  form  of  Episcopal  government ; "  and  yet  they  have 
placed  their  Church  under  a  government  that  is  evidently 
Presbyterian.  Conventions,  consisting  of  ministers  and  lay- 
elders,  or  messengers  (no  matter  by  what  name  they  are 
called),  are  to  meet  without  the  call  or  license  of  the  Bishop  ; 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  is  to  have  any  negative  upon  their 
proceedings,  or  even  to  preside  ex  officio  ;  and,  in  case  of  his 
delinquency,  he  is  to  be  arraigned  before  the  tribunal  of  his 
own  presbyters,  etc.,  who  have  a  power  to  displace  him. 
They  expect  the  Bishops  in  England  to  countenance  this  new 
fangled  Episcopate ;  but,  from  what  I  know  of  them,  I  can 
hardly  believe  that  they  will  be  aiding  to  a  scheme  formed 
with  a  design  to  degrade  the  Episcopal  order  by  depriving  it 
of  that  authority  which  it  has  ever  claimed  and  exercised  as 


APPENDIX.  371 

an   essential  and  unalienable  right,  since  the  time  of  the 
Apostles. 

In  Connecticut  the  Church  has  proceeded  upon  other 
maxims,  and  merits  the  approbation  and  applause  of  all  the 
friends  of  genuine  Episcopacy.  I  wish  that  so  fair  and 
proper  an  example  may  still,  if  possible,  be  followed  in  the 
other  States.  The  more  I  consider  the  matter,  the  more  I 
am  pleased,  that,  as  yet,  you  have  made  no  alterations  in 
the  Liturgy,  but  such  as  are  necessary  to  accommodate  it  to 
the  change  of  Government. 

You  are  pleased  to  intimate  an  inclination  or  wish  to  make 
me  a  visit.  I  should  be  extremely  happy  in  seeing  you  here, 
and  in  giving  you  the  best  reception  in  my  power ;  and  I 
shall  rejoice  in  every  kind  of  opportunity  of  proving  myself 
to  be,  with  peculiar  esteem  and  respect, 

Your  very  affectionate  humble  servant, 

T.  B.  CHANDLER. 
DB.  W.  S.  JOHNSON. 


INDEX. 


A. 


Abbot,  Mr.,  44. 
Addison,  68. 

"Alciphron,  or   the  Minute   Philoso 
pher/'  76,  83. 
Allison,  Mr.,  166,  172. 
American  Bishops,  276,  281,  297,  315, 

316,  324-326,  341. 
American  Church,  342,  347. 
American   Episcopate,   228,  314,  315, 

325,  326,  345,  367,  369. 
Ames's  "  Medulla  Theologize,"  5. 
Amherst,  Jeffery,  257. 
Andrew,  Samuel,  8,  11. 
Anson,  Lord,  263. 
Aplin,  Mr.,  277,  278. 
Apthorp,  Rev.  East,  243-245,  250,  275, 

283,  297,  303;   letter  of,  284,  285; 

removal  to  England,  and  death,  285. 
Archer,  Mr.,  26. 
Arianism,  84. 
Arians,  29,  31. 
Arminianism,  89. 
Arnold,   Rev.  Jonathan,  85,   93,  99- 

101 ;  will  and  death  of,  94,  95. 
Ashton,  Dr.,  49. 
Assembly,  Massachusetts,  300. 
Assembly,  New  York,  192,   193,  195, 

197. 
Astry,  Dr.  Francis,  27,  28,  30,  36,  40, 

101,   117,  213,   215,  216;   letter  of, 

106,  107. 

Athanasian  Creed,  124. 
Atterbury,    Dr.    Francis,  Bishop    of 

Rochester,  34,  44. 
Auchmuty,    Rev.    Samuel,   289,   292, 

296,  301. 


B. 


Bacon,  Lord,  6. 
Baile,  Dr.,  43. 
Baker,  Mr.,  40. 

Barclay,   Rev.   Henry,   255,  277,  279, 
283,  293,  296  ;  letter  of,  195-197. 


Barclay,  Mr.  P.,  97. 

Barrett,  Mr.,  281,  294. 

Barrow,  Isaac,  13. 

Barrowby,  Dr.,  42. 

Beach,  Rev.  Abraham,  366,  368. 

Beach,  Rev.  John,  122,  198,  199,  237, 
272-276,  350,  353  ;  conforms  to 
Episcopacy,  87,  88. 

Beach,  William,  88,  265  ;  his  widow, 
265. 

Beadle,  Mr.,  50. 

Bearcroft,  Mr.,  34;  Secretary  of  the 
Society,  112,  176,  211,  213,  216,  238, 
244. 

Bedford,  Duke  of,  281,  295. 

Bell,  Mr.  and  family,  319,  320. 

Bennet  College  Library,  50. 

Bennet,  Dr.,  43,  51,  52. 

Bennet,  Mr.,  and  Mohawk  Indians, 
284. 

Benson,  Dr.  Martin,  Bishop  of  Glouces 
ter,  86, 103,  104  ;  letter  of,  93,  94. 

Bentley,  Dr.,  50. 

Berkeley,  George,  Dean  of  Derry,  55, 
68,  88;  arrival  at  Newport,  67; 
charter  for  Bermuda  College,  69; 
marriage,  70 ;  letters  to  Johnson,  71- 
81,  154-156,  169-171;  gifts  to  Yale 
College,  77-81,  98,  99,  202;  Bishop 
of  Cloyne,  82 ;  Philosophy,  82,  83, 
130, 131,  136,  141-143  ;  "  Treatise  on 
Tar  Water,"  132  ;  mentions  of,  157, 
169,  187,  228,  230,  294,  317,  329, 
348-350,  357  ;  Mrs.  Berkeley,  344  ; 
removal  to  Oxford,  172  ;  death,  173, 
174. 

Berkeley,  Rev.  George,  80,  172,  228, 
271,  290,  305,  317,  323,  329,  357  ; 
letters  to  Johnson,  174-176,  327, 
328,  342-344 ;  meditates  visit  to 
America,  341  ;  Mrs.  George  Berke 
ley,  344. 

Bermuda  College,  55,  68,  76,  79,  326. 

Berriman,  Rev.  John,  27,  33,  40,  42, 
45,  48,  51,  127,  213,  222  ;  letters  to 


374 


INDEX. 


Johnson,  55,  56,  83,  84,  86,  95,  96, 
176,  177. 

Berriman,  Dr.,  William,  27,  30,  33,  35, 
43,  45,  49,  51,  53. 

Biss,  Dr.  Thomas,  29. 

Blackburn,  Dr.,  Archbishop  of  York,  86. 

Blackett,  Sir  Edward,  27. 

Book  of  Common  Prayer,  12. 

Boston  Expedition,  367. 

Boswell's  "  Life  of  Johnson,"  361. 

Bourbon,  House  of,  327. 

Bourk,  Mr.,  169,  170. 

Bowers,  Bishop,  45. 

Bowers,  Mr.,  28. 

Bowyers,  Jonah,  36,  43,  44. 

Boyle,  5. 

Bradshaw,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Bristol,  56. 

Bramston,  Mr.,  27. 

Brasenose  College,  90. 

Bridger,  Mr.,  27,  28,  32,  34,  41. 

Bristow,  Rev.  Dr.,  223,  241. 

British  Parliament,  326,  342. 

Brown,  Daniel,  7,  28,  30,  227  ;  tutor 
in  college,  9,  10,  14^.  declares  for 
Episcopacy,  18-20 ;  goes  to  England, 
23 ;  baptism  of,  34 ;  confirmation, 
and  ordination,  36,  37 ;  sickness, 
38  ;  death  and  burial,  40,  41. 

Brown,  Rev.  Isaac,  83. 

Buckingham,  Thomas,  8. 

Buckridge,  Mr.,  27,  34. 

Bull,  Mr.,  37. 

Bull,  George,  13,  63. 

Burnet,  Gilbert,  Bishop  of  Sartim,  13, 
60. 

Burnet,  Wm.,  Governor  of  New  York, 
60;  letter  of,  61,  62. 

Burrough,  Dr.,  33. 

Burton,  Rev.  John,  47,  90,  176,  292. 

Bushnell,  Francis,  2. 

Butler,  Bishop,  "  Analogy,"  357. 


Camm,  Rev.  Mr.,  324. 

Camp,  Rev.  Ichabod,  170. 

Caner,  Mr.  Henry,  9. 

Caner,  Rev.  Henrv,  93,  105,  145,  273, 

274,  277-279,  283,  296. 
Caner,  Rev.  Richard,  105,  106 ;  death 

of,  107. 

Cardcl,  Isaac,  34. 
Cardel,  Mrs.,  48. 
Carleton,  Mr.,  40. 
Carter,  Lady,  312. 
Carter,  Mr.,  36,37,  43. 
Carteret,  68. 

"  Cases  of  Conscience,"  5. 
Cathedral  of  Canterbury,  26. 


Chambers,  Mr.,  196,  197. 

Champion,  Mr.,  42. 

Chandler,  Dr.  Samuel,  281. 

Chandler,  T.  B.,  199,  272,    277,   279, 
283, 296, 312,351;"  Life  of  Johnson, 
20,  52,  64,  352-354  ;  "  Appeal,"  314- 
316,  325  ;  letters  of,  94,  365-370. 

Channing,  Dr.,  222. 

Chapman,  Daniel,  4. 

Charles  I.,  28,  54. 

Charlton,  Mr.,  277. 

Chatham,  Lord,  339,  340. 

Chauncy,  Dr.  Charles,  311,  314,  315, 
325. 

Checkley,  Mr.  John,  28,  30,  31,  36,  40, 
43,  45,  55, 177  ;  missionary  at  Provi 
dence,  95, 97 ;  writings  and  death,  97. 

Chillingworth,  75 

Chishul,  Dr.,  31,  33. 

Church  in  America,  93,  116,  117,  179, 
211-213,  228,  253,  283.  293,  321,  324, 
342,346,  347,351,367. 

Church  of  England,  7,  14-16,  23,  77, 
85,  107,  110,  111,  193,  201,  202,  204, 
258,  259,  322,  352-354 ;  in  Con 
necticut,  54,  87,  98, 165,  254,  272,  293. 

Churchmen  in  Connecticut,  98,  100. 

Clap,  Rev.  Thomas,  79,  103,  105,  123, 
170,  171,  200,  205,  209. 

Clarendon,  Earl  of,  35. 

Clark,  Dr.  Samuel,  36,  61,  62,  86 
122,  234. 

Clavering,  Dr.,  56. 

Codrington  College,  282. 

Colebatch,  Dr.,  43. 

Colden,  Cadwnlladcr,  129;  letters  to 
Johnson,  129,  130,  132,  133,  135- 
137,  140-142,  181-184. 

Golden,  Elizabeth,  183. 

Colgan,  Rev.  Thomas,  215. 

College  in  New  York,  189-194,  209; 
chartered,  195. 

Collegiate  School,  8. 

Collins,  Anthony,  64. 

Colman,  Dr.  Benjamin,  126,  145 ; 
letter  of,  123-12.">. 

Col  ton,  Rev.  Jonathan,  170. 

Commissary  for  Connecticut,  116. 

Congress  of  the  Colonies,  21)9,  300. 

Connecticut  Clergy,  99,  116,  297,  346. 

Connecticut  Colony,  4,  202,  310. 

Conybeare,  Mr.,  46. 

Cook,  Rev.  Samuel,  121. 

Cooper,  Rev.  Mylcs,  249,  267,  271,273, 
287,  291,  300 ,*312-31 4,  353. 

Co  ram,  Mr.  Thomas,  27. 

Court  of  Great  Britain,  310. 

Crawlev,  Mr.,  40. 

Cross,  Dr.,  49,  50. 


INDEX. 


375 


Crow,  Rev.  Mr.,  33. 

Crugcr,  John,  197. 

Cudworth,  Dr.,  230. 

Cummin,  Mr.,  29. 

Cuthbcrr,  Rev.  Mr.,  23. 

Cutler,  Rev.  John,  97,  165,  218-220. 

Cutler,  Rev.  Timothy,  Rector  of  Yale 
College,  11  ;  declares  for  Episco 
pacy,  18;  embarks  for  England,  23  ; 
sickness,  30  ;  baptism,  35 ;  confirma 
tion  and  ordination,  36,  37  ;  men 
tions  of,  34,  38,  40,  43,  52,  54,  55 ; 
65,  86,  90,  91,  95,  114,  145,  221; 
death  of  son,  101. 

Cutting;,  Mr.  Leonard,  232,  233,  241, 
247/250. 

Cyprian,  S.  17,  22. 


D. 


Dal.ton,  Mr.,  70,  342. 

Dartmouth,  Lord,  367. 

Davenport,  James,  113. 

Dawes,  Sir  William,  Archbishop  of 
York,  28,  29. 

Dawson,  Dr.,  52. 

Deists,  357. 

DC  Lancey,  James,  Lieutenant-gov 
ernor  of  New  York,  216,  233,  253. 

De  Lancey,  Peter,  182,  183. 

De  Lancey,  William  Heathcote,  first 
Bishop  of  Western  New  York,  184. 

Dclaunc,  Dr.,  47,  48. 

Descartes,  5,  74. 

Dickens,  Dr.,  49,  50. 

Dickinson,  Rev.  Jonathan,  97, 120, 121, 
274. 

Dissenters,  103,  179, 199,  202,  206,  207, 
212,  245,  276,  281,  282,  294,  295,  302, 
312,  314,  324,  341,  356. 

Dolison,  Dr.,  46-48. 

Dommer,  Mr.,  29. 

Dove,  Mr.,  166-168. 

Dummer,  Jeremiah,  7,  31,  202. 

Dutch  Church,  190,  196,  197. 

Dwight,  Timothy,  President,  80. 


Echard's  "  Church  History,"  13. 

Egrcmont,  Lord,  277. 

"Elementa  Philosophica,"  172,  174- 
181. 

Eliot,  .Tared,  teacher  at  Guilford,  3,4  ; 
minister  at  East  Guilford,  14;  men 
tion  of,  18,20,  79,  102. 

Ellis,  Dr.,  230. 

Ellotson,  Mr.,  35. 

Episcopacy,  88,  97,  275,  299,  346, 347 


351,  369,  370;  in  America,  256;  in 

Connecticut,  95. 

Episcopal  Indian  School,  303,  309. 
Estwick,  Mr.,  43. 
Ewer,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Llandaff,  sermon, 

100,311. 


F. 


Faden,  W.,  307,  318. 

Faycrweather,  Rev.  Samuel,  213,   214, 

216-218  ;  letter  of,  220,  224,  226. 
Felton,  Dr.,  47,  48. 
Finch,  Mr.,  42. 
Fisk,  Phineas,  5. 
Fleming,  Dr.,  86. 
Floyd,  Col.  Richard,  57. 
Forbes,  Lord  President,  127,  186,  234. 
Forster,  John,  70. 
Fosset,  Rev.  Mr.,  49. 
Fowle,  Rev.  Mr.,  213. 
Foxcroft,  Thomas,  120. 
Francis,  Mr.,  157,  159,  160,  162,  168. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  153,  169,  187,308; 

letters  to  Johnson.  157-160,  162-166, 

172,  173,  180,  181. 
Eraser's  <:  Life  of  Berkeley/'  175. 
"  Free  Examination/'  367. 
Free  Thinking,  81,  148,  151. 
Frink,  Mr.,  277,  278. 


G. 


Gainc,  Mr.,  367. 

Gardiner.  Dr.,  11 8. 

Gastrel,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Chester,  47. 

General  Assembly,  8,  10,  19;  of  Con- 
necticut,  100,  335  ;  of  Scotland,  211, 
301. 

"  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  361. 

George  III.,  255. 

Gibbs,  Rev.  William,  213. 

Gibson,  Dr.  Edmund,  Bishop  of  Lon 
don,  42,  43,  48,  56,  303. 

Giles,  Rev.  Mr.,  301,307. 

Godly,  Rev.  Mr.,  37. 

Gold,  Mr.  Hezekiah,  108  ;  letter  to 
Johnson,  110,  111. 

Gooch,  Dr.,  96. 

Gosling,  Mr.,  26,  43. 

Gosling,  Mr.  Jr.,  26,  212. 

Governors  of  King's  College,  286-289. 

Graham,  Rev.  John,  88,  89. 

Grafton,  Duke  of,  339. 

Grandorgh,  Dr.,  26  31. 

Green,  Dr.  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Nor 
vrieh,  35-37. 

Grecnaway,  Mr.,  47,  48. 

Grcgso.n,  Mr.,  30. 


376 


INDEX. 


Gregson,  Thomas,  100. 
Gronville,  Mr.,  302. 
Grey,  Dr.,  36,  43-45,  51,  52. 
Gronovius,  129. 
Guise,  Dr.,  145. 

H. 

Halifax,  Lord,  251-253,  277. 

Hall,  Dr.,  50. 

Hall,  Mr.,  171. 

Hall,  Mr.,  of  Lincoln,  90, 

Hammond,  Mr.,  39. 

Hampshire  ministers,  203. 

Handcock,  Lady,  70. 

Harding,  Mr.,  50. 

Hardy,  Sir  Charles,  233. 

Harison,   George,   211,   216,  219,  222, 

224,  238,  297. 
Harpin,  Dr.,  238. 
Harpur,  Mr.,  Robert,  266,  267. 
Hart,  Mr.  John,  14,  18,  20. 
Harvard  College,  2,  114,  144,  233. 
Havens,  Mr.,  166. 
Hay,  Mr.,  35,  41. 
Haywood,  Dr.,  48. 
Hebrew  Manuscripts,  308. 
Hemingway,  Mr.,  7. 
Hendley,  Mr.,  31. 
Herring,  Bishop,  86. 
Higgot,  Mr.,  52. 
Hill,  Mr.,  32. 
Hillsborough,  Lord,  338. 
Hoadly,  Bishop,  13,  61. 
Hobart,  John    Henry,  Bishop  of  New 

York,  353. 

Hobart,  Noah,  203,  207,  209,  274. 
Hobbes,  207. 
Hodges,  Dr.,  117. 
Hollo  way,  Mr.,  230. 
Honyman,  Rev.  James,  29,  54,  67,  101, 

165,  169,  170. 

Hooker's  "Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  13. 
Hooper,  Mr.,  51. 
Home,  George,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  128, 

228,  231,  267,   305,  329;    letter   to 

Johnson,  290. 
Horsmanden,   Daniel,   289  ;    letter   to 

Johnson,  288. 
Hubbard,  Rev.  Bela,  296. 
Hughes,  Mr.,  26. 
Humphrey,  Mr.,  31  ;  Humphrey,  Mrs., 

52. 

Hurd,  Jabez,  318. 
Hutchinson,  John,  127,  128,  131,  186, 

230,  231,  234,  267,  268,  305,  332. 
Hutchinsonians,  231,  305. 
Hyberton,  Dr.,  222. 


Ibbotson,  Dr.,  28,  36. 

Independents    or     Congregational  ista, 

16,  87,  273,  298. 

Indian  Charity  School,  308,  310. 
Inglis,  Dr.  Charles,  100,  296,351. 
"  Instauratio  Magna,"  6. 
"  Inventions  of  Men  in   the  Worship 

of  God,"  12. 
Irish  Parliament,  342. 


J. 


Jackson,  Mr.,  219. 

James,  Mr.,  4. 

James,  Mr.,  70. 

Jarvis,  Rev.  Abraham,  Bishop  of  Con 
necticut,  296. 

Jay,  Dr.  James,  agent  for  soliciting 
subscriptions,  269-271,  290. 

Jebb,  Mr.,  48. 

Jenkins,  Dr.  R.,  49,  50. 

Jenks,  Dr.,  27.    ' 

Jenner,  Edmund,  38. 

Jennings,  Mr.,  35. 

Johnson,  Robert,  emigration  to  Amer 
ica,  and  family,  1,  2. 

Johnson,  William,  his  son  settles  in 
Guilford,  2,  3. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  marriage,  2  death,  58. 

Johnson,  Rev.  Samuel,  birth,  1  ;  earlr 
education,  3,  4  ;  graduates  from  col 
lege,  5  ;  philosophical  studies,  5,  6  ; 
tutor  at  New  Haven,  9,  10  ;  Congre 
gational  Minister  at  West  Haven,  1 1  ; 
doubts  about  his  ordination,  12-15  ; 
declares  for  Episcopacy,  18,  19 ; 
reasons  for  his  change,  20-23  ;  sails 
for  England,  24  ;  books  read  at  sea, 
25 ;  arrival  and  reception,  25  ;  ex 
tracts  from  private  Journal,  26-37  ; 
baptism,  34 ;  confirmation  and 
ordination,  36,  37  ;  more  extracts 
from  Journal,  39-53 ;  sorrow  for  the 
death  of  Brown,  41  ;  visit  to  Oxford 
46-48  ;  visit  to  Cambridge,  49,  50  ; 
taking  leave  of  friends  and  farewell 
to  England,  53,  54 ;  arrival  at  Strat 
ford,  54 ;  letter  to  the  Bishop  of 
London,  56  ;  marriage,  57 ;  death  of 
parents,  58,  59  ;  intimacy  with  Gov 
ernor  Burnet,  60 ;  letter  to,  62,  63  ; 
studies  of  Christian  evidence,  64  ; 
religious  controversy,  88-91  ;  visit^ 
to  Berkeley,  67,  70,  75,  77;  inter.— 
Berkeley  in  Yale  College,  77-81  ; 
convert  to  his  Philosophy,  82 ;  foreign 
correspondence,  92,  34 f,  348;  educa- 


INDEX. 


377 


tion  of  sons,  144  ;  letters  to  J.  Scul- 
lard,  66,  67  ;  letters  to  J.  Berriman, 
85,  96-98,  127,  128  ;  letters  to 
Bishop  of  London,  88,  94,  297-299 ; 
letters  to  Bishop  Berkeley,  99-103, 
105,  106,  170-173  ;  letters  to  George 
Berkeley,  229-232,  328,  329,  347, 
348;  letters  to  Mr.  Gold,  108-111; 
letter  to  Rev.  Roger  Price,  113-115  ; 
letter  to  Mills,  122 ;  letter  to  Colman, 
125,  126;  letters  to  C.  Colden,  133- 
140,  142,  143,  184-188;  letters  to 
elder  son,  148-153,  197-199,  225- 
228,  233,  234,  254,  255,  262,  263, 
315,  316;  letter  to  son's  wife,  236  ; 
letter  to  Dr.  Franklin,  167,  168; 
letters  to  George  Home,  267,  268, 
290-292  ;  letter  to  Rev.  Richard 
Peters,  161 ;  letters  to  President 
Clap,  201-209;  letters  to  Arch 
bishop  Seeker,  243,  244,  269,  270, 
294  -  297  ;  correspondence  with 
Seeker,  241,  249,  251-254,  256; 
named  for  Commissary,  116,  117; 
Doctor  of  Divinity,  117,  118;  build 
ing  churches,  119,  120;  system  of 
morality,  123,  169  ;  controversy  with 
Dickinson,  120-122;  defense  of 
Berkeley's  Philosophy,  131,  132; 
called  to  College  in  Philadelphia, 
153,  157;  invited  to  Newport,  165; 
"  Elementa  Philosophica,"  169, 172  ; 
cost  of  printing,  179  ;  President  of 
King's  College,  190,  191  ;  controversy 
among  the  Trustees,  192, 197 ;  resigns 
mission  at  Stratford,  209 ;  removes 
to  New  York,  210;  retires  to  West- 
chester,  233,  235,  237  ;  illness  of  wife, 
235,  236  ;  death,  240 ;  return  to  New 
York,  239  ;  small-pox  again  in  the 
city,  247,  255  ;  writes  to  Rev.  East 
Apthorp,  250,  251 ;  discourse  on 
Prayer,  and  letter  to  friend,  257-261 ; 
dislike  of  skeptical  writers,  264  ; 
second  marriage,  265 ;  aid  for  Col 
lege,  solicited  in  England,  266,  267; 
defense  of  the  Church,  272-274  ; 
determines  to  resign,  274,  275  ;  small 
pox  in  New  York  and  prepares  to 
retire  to  Stratford,  286;  death  of  his 
wife,  287 ;  letter  to  Trustees,  289  ; 
directs  studies  of  candidates,  292  ; 
interest  in  the  Indians,  308-310; 
correspondence  with  Chandler,  312- 
315 ;  Hebrew  Grammar,  and  corre 
spondence  about,  306, 307, 333 ;  efforts 
in  favorot  American  Episcopate,  324- 
327,  341 ;  death,  349,  350 ;  burial, 
350,;  sermons  on,  350,  351  ;  autobi 


ography,  352,  354  ;  character,  354- 
357. 

Johnson,  Wm.  Samuel,  birth  65 ;  edu 
cation,  113,  117,  144;  letters  to  his 
father,  145-147,  192-194,  274,  275, 
305,  311,  312,  316-323,  329-331, 
338-340  ;  inoculated  for  small-pox, 
293  ;  member  of  first  Colonial  Con 
gress,  299  ;  author  of  remonstrance 
to  the  King,  300  ;  special  agent,  310 ; 
marriage  of  daughter,  334  ;  letter  to 
his  wife,  336 ;  prolonged  absence  in 
England,  335-338  ;  mentions  of,  197, 
199,  225-227,  273  ;  sails  for  America, 
343  ;  arrival  at  Stratford,  344  ;  letter 
to  Bishop  Lowth,  349,  350. 

Johnson,  Rev.  Wm.,  birth,  143  ;  educa 
tion,  143,  144;  mentions  of,  205, 
226,  238  ;  letters  to  his  father,  209, 
214,  217;  tutor  in  King's  College, 
210;  arrival  in  England,  212;  ordi 
nation,  217;  letter  to  his  brother, 
218-220  ;  death,  220;  burial,  224. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  303,  310,  314. 

Johnson,  Dr.,  monument  to  in  Cherry 
Burton  Church,  319. 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  330;  letter  to 
Wm.  Samuel  Johnson,  and  his  an 
swer,  361-365. 

Jones,  Dr.,  30,  45. 

Jones,  John,  34,  53. 

Jones,  William,  of  Nayland,  128,  290, 
291,  305. 

Journal  of  Convention,  Virginia,  368, 
369. 

K. 

Kay,  Mr.,  78. 

Kennett,  Dr.,  32. 

Kennicott,  Dr.,  308. 

King,  Archbishop,  12. 

King's  College,  chartered,  195  ;  contro 
versy  about,  196,  197,  199  ;  first  com 
mencement,  241 ;  second,  243 ;  fourth, 
265  ;  gifts  to,  244 ;  Governors  of 
256  ;  need  of  funds,  267  ;  collections 
for  in  England,  269-271  ;  mentions 
of,  247,  253,  290,  291,  345. 

King,  Dr.,  master  of  the  Chapter  House, 
30,  52,  53. 

King,  Sir  Peter,  30. 

Kinnersley,  Mr.,  222. 

Kneeland,  Rev.  Ebenezer,  333, 334,  367 

Knight,  Rev.  Dr.,  34,  51. 


Laney,  Dr.,  49,  50. 
Law,  63. 


378 


INDEX, 


Lawson,  Mr.,  50. 

Learning,  Rev.  Jeremiah,  350. 

Leland,  357. 

Leslie,  357. 

"  Letter  from  Aristocles  to  Authades," 

120,  121. 

Leybourn,  Mr.  R,,  36. 
Lisle,  Dr.,  96. 
Lispenard,  Leonard,  197. 
Lithered,  Captain  Thomas,  23. 
Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  13, 

189,  193,  205,  262. 

Livingston,  Win.,  100,  191,  195-197. 
Locke,  John,  5,  74,  131,  230. 
"London  Chronicle,"  315. 
"London  Magazine,"  251,  252. 
Lords  of  the  Council,  336. 
Lovel,  Dr.,  28,  29,  52. 
Low,  Mr.,  37. 

Lowth,  Bishop,  326,  331,  349. 
Lucas,  Mr.,  50. 
Lupton,  Dr.,  52. 
Lutheran  Ministers,  197. 
Lyttleton,  Lord,  319. 


Mackintosh,  Colonel,  23. 

Manning,  Mr.,  43. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  340. 

Markham,  Dr.,  174. 

Marlhorongh,  Duke  of,  47. 

Marshall,  Key.  John  R.,  345. 

Marshall,  Dr.  Nathaniel,  36,  40,  43,  45, 

52. 

Martin,  Mr.,  166. 
Massey,  Mr.,  37,  39,  40. 
Maverick,  Mrs.  George,  252. 
Mayhcw,  Dr.  Jonathan,  275,  276,  278, 

280,  281,  285,294,295. 
McSparran,  Dr.  James,  95,  213,  219. 
Middlesex  Election,  339, 
Middleton,  Dr.,  49,  50. 
Middlcton,  Mr.,  43. 
Mills,  Mr.  Ji-dediah,  122. 
Missionaries,  245,  254. 
Mohcgan  Cause,  310,  311,  336,  343. 
Moore,  Sir  T.,  368. 
Morley,  Mr.,  224. 
Monis,  Rev.  Theophilus,  112-116. 
Morton,  Dr.,  291. 
Moselev,  Mr.,  46. 
Moss,  Dr.,  42,  43,  45,  312. 
Moss,  Mr.,  7. 
Murray,  Mr.  Joseph,  266. 

N. 

Ncgns,  Mr.,  45. 
New  bury,  Walter  45. 


Newcastle,  Duke  of,  253. 

Newton,  Bishop,  290. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  5. 

Newtonian  Philosophy,  128,  332. 

Nicholls,  Dr.,  214-217,  228. 

Nichols,  Dr.,  222. 

Nicholson,  Jeremiah,  34. 

Nicoll,  Benjamin,  Esq.,  57. 

Nicoll,  Benjamin,    Jr.,   194,  195,  198, 

248. 

Nightingale,  Mrs.  Dorothy,  34,  35. 
"Noetica,"  168,  169,  180,  182. 
North,  Bishop,  344,  348. 
North,  Lord,  339. 
Norton,  Mr.,  52. 
Nottingham,  Earl  of,  23. 
Noyes,  Joseph,  5,  7,  9. 


0. 


Oglethorpe,  Mr.,  90. 

Oldsworth,  Mr.,  49. 

Oliver,  Mr.,  52,  53. 

Orem,  Mr.,  23. 

Osbaldistone,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Carlisle, 

218. 

Otis,  James,  300. 
Owen,  Dr.,  47. 
"  Oxonia  Illustrata,"  209. 


r. 


Paine,  Thomas,  264. 

Painting,  Dr.,  46. 

Parker,  Mr.  Samuel,  48. 

Parkhurst,  Rev.  John,  306,  318,  332. 

Parsons,  Sir  John,  51. 

Patrick's  "Devotions,"  13. 

Patten,  Rev.  Dr.,  231,  268,  290,  291. 

Pearcc,  Mr.,  49. 

Pearson,  John,  13,  63. 

Peters,  Rev.   Richard,    160,    162,  1*5, 

166,  168,  173. 
Phillips,  Mr.,  51. 
Pierson,  John,  83. 
Pigot,  Rev.  George,  15, 16 ;  removal  to 

Providence,  54. 
Pilgrim,  Mr.,  50. 
Pitt,  Mr.,  251-253. 
Pollen,  Rev.  Mr.,  176. 
Pope,  68,  214. 
Popery,  89. 

Porteus,  Dr.,  311,  312. 
Potter,  Dr.  John,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  33, 

46,47,  296. 

Presbyterians,  298,  301. 
Presbyterian  Divines,  88,  120,  197. 
Presbyterian  Ordination,  14,  15. 
Price,"  Mr.,  37. 


INDEX. 


379 


Price,  Rev.  Roger,  112,  113,  116,  281, 

294. 

Primitive  Church,  14. 
"Principles  of  Action  in  Matter,"  129, 

181. 
"  Principles  of  Human  Knowledge,"  67, 

72. 

Prior,  Thomas,  70,  76. 
Protest,  192-194,  196. 
Punderson,  Rev.  E.,  200,  205,  207. 

Q. 

Queen  Anne,  68,  276. 
R. 

Rawden,  Mr.,  42-44. 

Kawlins,  Mr.,  29, 35. 

Revolutionary  War,  241. 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  361. 

Rice,  Mr.,  42. 

Richards,  Mr.,  197. 

Robinson,  Dr.  John,  Bishop  of  London, 

29,  34,  35,  37. 
Roderick,  Dr.,  44. 
Rugglcs,  Captain,  51. 
Ruggles,  Mr.,  300. 
Rundle,  Dr.,  84-86. 
Ryan,  Mr.,  48. 


Sabellianism,  62. 

Sage,  David,  2. 

Salmon,  Mr.,  53. 

Salmon,  Mr.,  of  Brazenose,  90. 

Saltonstall,  Governor,  8,  9,  19,  20. 

Sanderson,  Mr.,  blind  professor,  50. 

Sanford,  Mr.,  28,  29. 

Scate,  Mr.,  44. 

Scotch  Presbyterians,  304. 

Scott,  John,  "  Christian  Life"  of,  12. 

Scripture  Mysteries,  237. 

Scripture  Philosophy,  332. 

Scullard,  Mr.  J.,  33,  34,  39,  40,  43-45, 
56,  85  ;  letter  of,  65,  66. 

Seabury,  Mr.  Samuel,  Jr.,  199,  314; 
Bishop  of  Connecticut,  348,  349. 

Seagrave,  Mr.,  27. 

Seeker,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  96, 
117, 173  ;  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
79,  241,  243,  245,  246,  249,  251,  258, 
269,  272,  285,  293,  309-312,  316,  321, 
322,  328,  329  ;  letters  to  Johnson, 
276-278,  280-283,  302-304. 

Scwall,  Stephen,  332,  333. 

Sharpe,  13. 

Shelburne,  Earl  of,  316. 


Sherlock,  13,  52,  63. 

Sherlock,  Dr.,  Dean  of  Chichester,  39. 

Sherlock,  Bishop,  86,  96,  211,  217,  341. 

Shippen,  Dr.,  46,  47. 

Shute,  Governor,  35. 

Skirret,  Dr.,  51. 

Smibert,  Mr.,  70. 

Smith,  Mr.,  29,  47. 

Smith,  Dr.,  41. 

Smith,  Joseph,  4. 

Smith,  Samuel,  9. 

Smith,  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.,  176,  178,  270, 
282. 

Smith,  Mr.  Bar.,  46,  47. 

Smollett,  263,  264. 

Snapc,  Dr.,  43,  49,  51,  63. 

Societies  incorporated,  276 ;  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  15, 
16,  23,  29,  51,  87,  92,  237,  254,  269, 
275,  278,  281,  284,  296,  307,  309,  311. 

Socinianism,  62,  357. 

South,  13. 

Spinozism,  143. 

Stamp  Act,  299,  300. 

Standard,  Mr.,  211,  213. 

Stanhope,  Dean,  26,  39. 

Stebbing,  Dr.,  84,  86. 

Steele,  68. 

Stiles,  President,  5,  79,  199. 

Stinton,  Dr.,  311. 

Stockton,  Mr.,  316. 

Stockwell,  Mr.,  46. 

Stuyvesant,  Mr.,  172. 

Swift,  Dean,  68. 

Symson,  Mr.,  50. 

Synod  of  Presbyterians,  301,  316. 

"  System  of  Morality,"  123,  136,  169. 


T. 


Talbot,  Bishop  of  Durham,  84. 

Talbot,  Mrs.,  312. 

Tar  Water,  174. 

Temple,  Mr.,  343. 

Terrick,  Dr.  Richard,  Bishop  of  Lon 
don,  282,  297,  341  ;  letter  to  Johnson, 
345,  346. 

Thoinlinson,  Captain,  176. 

Tillotson,  231. 

Tindall,  Matthew,  64,  84. 

Trapp,  Mr.,  27. 

Trcadwell,  Mr.,  241,  247-249,  268. 

Trinity,  doctrine  of,  60,  63,  128,  291. 

Tritheism,  62. 

Trognair,  Mr.,  46. 

Trotter,  Mr.,  49. 

Truby,  Mr.,  42,  45,  52. 

Tryon,  Mr.,  Treasurer,  39,  43. 


380 


INDEX. 


Tucker,  Dr.,  285. 

Tyler,  Rev.  John,  321,  334. 

U. 

Underbill,  Lord,  233. 
University  of  Bermuda,  68. 
University  of  Cambridge,  232,  269. 
University  of  Dublin,  68. 
University  of  Edinburgh,  127,  270. 
University  of  Glasgow,  266. 
University  of  Oxford,  46,  90,  117,  118, 

172,  219,  221,269,  329. 
Usher,  Rev.  Mr.,  32,  34,  114. 
Utrecht,  treaty  of,  69. 


V. 


Vanhomrigh,  Miss,  68. 

Vaughan,  Mr.,  31,  42. 

Vernon,  Mr.,  53. 

Vestry  of  Trinity  Church,  N.  Y.,  198, 

211. 

Vicarage  of  Croyden,  285. 
Vincent,  Mr.,  31. 
Vindication    of   God's   sovereign   free 

grace,  121. 
Viner,  202,  204. 

W. 

Waddington,  Dr.,  45 ;  Bishop  of  Chi- 
chester,  56. 

Wagstaff,  Mr.,  48. 

Wait,  Mr.,  31,  42. 

Wake,  Dr.  W.,  Archbishop  of  Canter 
bury,  13,  28,  35,  37,  39,  53,  86. 

Walker,  Dr.,  36,  95. 

Wall  on  Infant  Baptism,  13. 

Wallgrave,  or  Waldgrave,  Earl  of,  37. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  70,  76,  326. 

Warren,  Dr.,  49,  50,  53. 

Warton,  Mr.,  46. 

Waterland,  Dr.,  48,  63. 

Waterman,  Mr.,  44. 

Watkins,  Rev.  Mr.,  129. 

Wats,  Mr.,  33,  40. 

Watson,  Dr.,  32;  Bishop,  264. 

Watts,  Mr.,  196,  287. 

Waugh,  Dr.,  Dean  of  Gloucester,  32, 40, 
86. 

Webster,  Mr.,  45. 

Welles,  Mr.  Noah,  274. 

Welton,  Dr.,  Non-juring  Bishop,  55. 

Wesley,  Mr.  Charles,  90. 

Wesley,  Mr.  John,  90. 

Wetherell,  Dr.,  head  of  University  Col 
lege,  305,  329. 


Wetmore,  James,  14,  18,  28,  113,  192, 
193, 237  ;  baptism,  52 ;  ordination,  53. 

Wheatly,  Mr.  Charles,  36,  42,  43,  45, 
48,  51,  53,  56. 

Wheelock,  Rev.  Eleazar,  303,  308,  310. 

Wheelwright,  Mrs.,  284. 

Whiston,  23,34,  61  i 

Whitby,  13. 

White,  Rev.  Wm.,  Bishop  of  Penn,  361 . 

Whitefield,  Rev.  George,  103,  105-107, 
110,  119,  120,  122,  245. 

Whiting,  John,  80. 

Whittelsey,  Samuel,  14, 18,  20;  son  of, 
89. 

Wickliffe,  John,  45. 

Wightman,  Paul,  81. 

Wilcox,  Dr.  John,  Bishop  of  Glouces 
ter,  33. 

Wilkins,  Dr.,  26. 

Williams,  Elisha,  Rector  of  Yale  Col 
lege,  79,  81,  99,  102,  103,  202. 

Williams,  Peere,  219. 

Willis,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Sarum,  29. 

Willoughby,  Lord,  281. 

Wilson,  Rev.  Mr.,  301. 

Wilson,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Sodor  and 
Man,  44,  51-53. 

Winslow,  Rev.  Edward,  209,  219,  273, 
274,  278,  280,  292,  293. 

Winthrop,  Mr.  John,  167,  332. 

Wittar,  Mr.,  231. 

Wollaston,  124. 

"  Wollebius,"  5. 

Wood,  Mr.,  31,43. 

Woodbridge,  Mr.  Dudley,  48. 

Wood  bridge,  Timothy,  8. 

Woodhull,  Margaret,  57. 

Woodward,  Dr.,  32,  43. 

Woolston,  Thomas,  64. 

Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  39  ;  funeral,  33. 

Wyat,  Mr.,  46. 


Y. 


Yale  College,  fixed  at  New  Haven,  and 
first  building,  9 ;  party  at  Wethers- 
field,  8-10 ;  Trustees,  18  ;  gifts  to,  79, 
80 ;  debate  in  College  library,  19-23  ; 
Catalogue  of  books,  123  ;  Chapel,  200, 
257;  regulations  for  worship,  199, 
212,  216;  graduates,  83,  144,  267, 
296;  mentions  of,  14,  113,  117,  171, 
249. 

Yale,  David,  33,  53. 

Yale,  Elihu,  10,  202. 

York,  Archbishop  of,  282,  295. 

York,  Duke  of,  320. 

Younger,  Dean,  40,  52. 


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